A change in scenery
by akela83
Summary: Naruto is strong, smart, popular and a true prodigy… too bad he had to die to save the village and now finds himself in a different world where he isn’t any of this things.
1. Prologue

**A/N: **Well this is my first story and English isn't my first language so please forgive me for any grammar or spelling error I did the best that I could.

**Summary:** Naruto is strong, smart, popular and a true prodigy… too bad he had to die to save the village and now finds himself in a different world where he isn't any of this things.

* * *

**A change in scenery**

**Prologue**

A stone memorial stood in the middle of the forest; if one were to look closely they would see hundreds of names written in it and right now a youth, probably no older than twelve, was staring at one of the names with eyes far too old and with too much sadness for one so young.

"I wish you were here mum, today more than ever" he whispered, more to himself than to anyone in particular. The boy was wearing black cargo pants, black combat boots and a dark blue tight shirt, which a dark green vest with many pouches over it, and the final piece completing his look, hanging loosely around his neck, a head band with Konohagakure no sato symbol in it, which in turn identified him as a konoha ninja.

He had unruly blond hair and the most beautiful and bright blue eyes that seemed to rival the sky, he was a little tall for his age, but that was mostly due to his training, and he seemed to have a commanding and powerful air around him, his name was Naruto Namikaze, konoha's elite jounin, son of the famous youndaime hokage, Minato Namikaze and national hero.

Naruto, even thought he was just 12 years old, was already claimed one of the most powerful persons in the village and that was mostly the reason why he was there staring at his mother name and wishing she was there to help him.

That day, for reasons completely unknown to anyone, the kyuubi no kitsune was about to attack the village and nothing nobody did was enough to stop it, and so his father had just decided to do something completely stupid (at least in Naruto's eyes) and was preparing to use a suicide jutsu in order to seal the demon into a newborn (which identity was yet to be decided) and all they could do was hope that the village was able to survive the whole thing without a leader to guide it, and that the villagers somehow honored his last wishes and treat the innocent baby as a hero instead of a monster (yeah, like that was gonna happen)

Of course Naruto knew that whomever the demon was sealed inside wasn't going to be anything more than his jailor, but that didn't change the fact that most of the villagers wouldn't see this fact and they would probably blame the baby for the burden that was about to be placed in his shoulders, and to top it all the death of the most powerful and loved Hokage of all ages.

Yep, the baby's life was looking just great, but his father refused to listen to reason insisting that the villagers would see past their fears and they would treat the baby as the hero that was protecting them from the demon and that it was his duty as the Hokage to sacrifice his life and that there wasn't anybody else available he could trust to do it (and blah, blah, blah).

So Naruto was left there wishing his mother was there to stop his father and that he didn't have to do what he was about to do, because he honestly wasn't ready to do it but he honestly didn't see any other way that this whole mess could work for the best, he had already gone over the plan in his head for at least a hundred times and the time for the truth was soon approaching.

Finally when he knew he couldn't wait any longer for an answer he knew wasn't coming, he picked up his coat, which reach just above his ankles and that was an exact replica of the one his father wore except it was orange instead of white with black flames instead of yellow ones, and in an orange and black flash Naruto disappeared from the forest with a last sad goodbye "see you soon, mum"

* * *

At the same time that Naruto was trying to come up with an answer, in the Hokage tower four people were having a heated argument about what one of them was planning to do.

"This is the only way we can stop it, there just isn't time to do anything else about it" said a blond man who look remarkably like and older version of Naruto.

"But there must be something else we can do, sensei" said a younger man with spiky silver hair, and who wore a mask over his lower face and had one eye cover with his head band "Or at least someone else who could do it"

"No, Kakashi" answered the first man firmly, with the air of someone who has already heard the same argument a hundredth times "this is my duty and I can ask anyone else to be sacrifice for it"

"Minato the villagers will need you in order to overcome this whole ordeal" said a nice old man with a grandfatherly look "Allow me to take your place, I have already done what I came to do and can go in peace knowing the village is safe at your hands"

"Sarutobi-sensei I couldn't ask that from you, moreover you have already done your job as a Hokage and now is my turn to do what it must be done" answered Minato without any doubt in his voice, he had already accepted what was about to happen and wasn't about to back down.

"Minato think about my godson he is still young and he still needs his father, this is not fair to him" argued a big man with long white hair "I could take your place and you could stay by his side, wouldn't it be better?"

But Minato only shook his head and said in a calm and stern voice "Naruto is already a jounin and he understands that sacrifices must be made, he is going to be fine" for the first time since this discussion have begun he started to doubt if what he was doing was the best solution, but then just as quickly as that thoughts came he remembered all the people in the village he loved and cemented his own resolve 'I have to do this, there isn't any other way to protect them, it's my duty' were the only thoughts running through his mind as he begun to prepare for the battle to come.

"Who will be the one?" asked the white haired man apparently giving up on changing the other one's mind, after all being his teacher he knew first hand just how stubborn Minato could be.

"Kurenai is about to give birth to a baby girl, she has already agreed to let us use her" here he looked to Sarutobi whit an apologetic expression, after all this was his granddaughter they were talking about, but still…"As soon as the baby is born we will go along with the rest of the plan, we need to be ready" And with that they begun to work.

None of them noticed the shadow that left the room as they finished the preparations, or the small scroll that appeared next to the Hokage's desk when the shadow was gone.

* * *

He looked at the baby girl in his arms and couldn't avoid to feel sorry for her, her life was not gonna be easy he hated to be the one who was (quite literally) sealing her fate but the choice was already made and there was no turning back, after all he was his father son.

He summoned Gamabunta, the frog boss and hop on top of his head.

"Are you ready" he asked the giant frog.

"I'm ready, are you ready?" Gamabunta shot back

"As ready as I'll ever be" he answered back with hi favorite foxy grin in his face, and he immediately begun the sealing process; the baby in his arms woke up and started crying but he ignored her, the voices around him seemed to grow loud and the sounds of the battle going on in front of him appeared to reach a deafening volume, but he keep going.

Finally the most terrifying vision he had ever seen appeared in front of him, the king of demons, the nine tail fox in all his glory, it was probably the scariest thing he would ever see but he didn't stop and suddenly another being appeared right in front of him, it was even scarier than the Kyubbi himself, the death god in person, but he kept going and finally the seals were finished and he yelled out his jutsu:

"Shiki Fujin, Jigoku Koka Kyoten Chiten Numa no jutsu"

And just as he did it the world seemed to stand still for a moment, he used all his remaining strength to stay up as the death god rose his arm, grabbed the Kyubbi and seemed to pull him into the baby that was still being hold by him and seal it inside her, all the while the Kyubbi trashed madly and fought to no avail but it wasn't meant to be, the sealing was completed and he felt the life leaving him just as the seal appeared in the baby's tummy and whisker like scars became visible in her face.

He started to fell, just as the noises that had seemed to stop while the sealing was taking place came back with a vengeance, he felt gamabunta's tongue warping around his waist and lowering him gently to the ground, and he faded to unconsciousness just as a male voice screamed his name at the top of his lungs.

"NARUTO!"

* * *

Five minutes ago hokage tower….

Minato couldn't shake the feeling that something wasn't right; he had made sure that everything was ready for the sealing, but the feeling in his gut wouldn't leave him and it was starting to freak him out.

He looked around his office, looking for something that would explain the feeling, and just as he was about to go back into what he was doing and dismiss the feeling again, he spotted a small innocent looking scroll, and for some reason his heart started to bit a little faster and his hands were shaking as he took it. His breath seem to get caught as he read the first line.

_Dad_

_If you're reading this then I'm probably no longer alive._

_I love you too much to not say goodbye and at the same time I couldn't risk being stopped so I wrote this letter and hoped that you would understand why._

_I know you said it was your duty, but I think you are mistaken the world needs Minato Namikaze, the yondaime hokage much more than they need Naruto Namikaze, his son, so I decided to do what I feel must be done and hope you could forgive me for doing it._

_I didn't used Kurenai's child instead I used Yugao's, simply because this way you can give the love that she would need to carry this burden as his mother died just before I took her, I know you can protect her and teach her just like you did for me._

_As my last wish I beg you not to tell anyone of the demon she carries I asked Rin to take her as soon as the sealing was done so no one should be the wiser about what happened. I don't want her to live a harder life than she must, so please let her grow up without the hate that I know would find her otherwise._

_I love this village and you more than my life, so I took the only way I could to protect those things, that is after all my ninja way._

_Never forget that your son loves you and protect those that I couldn't. When the time comes we will see each other again._

_Your son_

_Naruto Namikaze_

He couldn't stop the tears that felt from his eyes even as he got up and disappeared in a yellow flash and reappear in the battle field a moment later, just as his son's body fell to the ground.

Minato screamed his name but he knew deep inside that it was too late, he saw Rin take the baby girl in her arms and run away from the battle place, he saw how the ninjas cried in happiness at the end of the battle and in sadness at the lost of one of the best of the village, he helped them take his body and he announced to the village that his son was a true hero, that he died for them and that he loved them all. He didn't mention the baby girl that right now slept in his office, his daughter and the jailor of the most powerful demon who his son had defeated, he will keep his son whishes it was after all the only thing he could do.

* * *

Naruto was pretty sure he was dead, because there just wasn't any other way that the white nothingness that surrounded him existed anywhere else.

"You know this is the first time I have met someone in hundreds of years, but you are probably worth the wait" A powerful yet beautiful voice seemed to speak from all around him, he wasn't sure if it was male or female but it didn't seem to matter at the moment "Not many would be willing to give their life at such young age with such conviction, you truly are one in a kind"

"But what I'm supposed to do with you" the voice seem to speak to herself "There isn't anywhere for you to go back but you can't move forward yet, I guess you could wait here until the right time comes but that would take too long…mmm, what to do?"

"Excuse me" Naruto said when it seemed the voice was done with its musings "What exactly do you mean?"

"Well you see, you weren't suppose to die yet so I can send you forward, but you are dead so I can't send you back, which leaves you stuck in between and we can have that either, so I'm trying to figure out what to do…um, yes I guess that could work, but it could be problematic…oh well it's the best I can think of for now, so I'll figure out the rest later" The voice went back to thinking at loud, while Naruto tried to figure out what the hell it was taking about

"Sorry, what are you saying?" Naruto finally asked, but the voice either didn't hear him or just decided it was too much trouble to answer him, instead it started with a different subject

"You know there just isn't one world and one destiny…more like every decision could change something and then there would be a different world…but since you can go back to your own world instead you could go to a different one, you would remember everything of course but you would also get the memories of your other self so in a way you would become someone else but still be you…What do you think?"

"I…I'm…I'm not sure…" Naruto really didn't know what he was supposed to say to any of that and currently he just hoped someone would explain what was going on or at least try to make it easier to understand… this was just a little too much.

"I think this is the best idea I'm going to come up with, so you'll just have to figure it out, don't worry I'm sure you'll be fine and if it doesn't work… we'll just see each other again, so it isn't such a big deal" the voice sounded as though everything it said was just a simple game and that really scared Naruto, but he didn't really got a chance to protest as the light that surrounded him seemed to grow and finally blinded him and the last thing he heard before he fainted (again) was the sound of a beautiful laugh that sent shivers through his back.


	2. Welcome

**A change in scenery**

**Chapter 1 -- Welcome**

There is a clearing in the middle of the forest near Konoha, not many people know of this place and even fewer bother to visit it, it's a relaxing and beautiful place and usually quite calm and peaceful… however that was about to change.

When Naruto was finally able to open his eyes again, without being blinded by the light, he found himself in the middle of said clearing, which was confusing because he was pretty sure he was dying from a suicide jutsu just moments ago and now he was apparently perfectly fine, not only that but for some strange reason, and probably a little crazy reason considering all that had happened lately, HE was wearing a bright blinding orange suit (which he couldn't help but think seemed to scream 'kill me') and he didn't have his head band or any of his other stuff including all of his weapons…all in all Naruto thought it was perfectly understandable that he was a little freaked out, honestly anyone else would probably had been in the middle of a panic attack, but because Naruto was who he was, and he WAS trained since he basically learnt to walk, he only begun the process to calm himself and figure out what the HELL was happening.

'Ok I know I'm near Konoha and there doesn't seem to be anything wrong with me (apart from my clothing) even though I feel a little weak but that's probably just because of the jutsu (at least I hope so) and I don't think there are any enemies nearby (thank god for small blessings), so the only problem I can think of it's that I'm supposed to be dead and I aren't, so what the hell happen?'

Naruto just sat there trying to force his tired brain into replaying his last memory when it suddenly hit him: he had died, he was sure of it, but then he went to another place and… "WHAT DID YOU DO?" Naruto screamed at the top of his lungs even though he knew it was useless and possibly dangerous given the circumstances but at this point he couldn't be bothered with trying to be sensible, not when he had just remembered that, whatever that voice was, had said that it would send him to a different world and then proceeded to do just that; without even giving him a chance to protest or at least to understand whatever it is that it was going to happen…and had happened by the way things were looking…Oh, he was so going to figure out a way to pay him/her back when he saw him/her again.

But first he needed to figure out a few things, like: where was he? , why was he here? , what was different in this place? And more importantly WHY was he wearing an orange suit that screamed 'kill me'? Ok so the last question wasn't probably the most important, but he couldn't imagine in what kind of universe he would end up wearing that damn color (ignoring the fact that he had actually liked the color before all this happen) and he couldn't shake the nagging feeling in the pit of his stomach that it was telling him that he probably didn't want an answer to that question, so he tried to calm himself (again) and forced himself to remember if that obnoxious what-ever-it-was had said anything else that could be useful.

Now that Naruto thought about it, she, he had decided that the what-ever-it-was seem more female than male, although he didn't actually had a clue about what it was much less her gender, but he thought he was entitled to call HER whatever he wanted after what she had done, anyway SHE had said that he will get his memories from his other self, but there seemed to be something wrong because he couldn't think of anything that would answer any of his questions… maybe he just have to give it a little time and the memories would come? whatever it was he couldn't just sit here and wait for the answers to fall from the sky, so he would have to find a way to manage without his 'memories' or whatever it was he was supposed to get…

First he started to explore his surroundings, in an unknown situation this was usually the first step to take but so much had happen in so little time that he hadn't so much as considered the idea before 'well better late than ever, I guess'

* * *

Looking around the small clearing, which he quickly recognize as the one he had used many times when he had need an empty place for training where he wouldn't be seen, his eyes were steered to a seemingly innocent scroll resting right next to him which he was almost sure was anything but innocent. Steadying his heartbeat he took the scroll and started to read it. 'How in the heavens name did the scroll of the forbidden seal ended up in the middle of the forest?' and, to his surprise, just as fast as the question came so did the answer 'I stole it?' Naruto couldn't believe it he had actually stole the forbidden scroll, this had to be a nightmare or maybe someone, probably what-ever-it-was had a sick sense of humor and loved messing with him.

Naruto was sure that the last couple of minutes were probably the most confusing and terrifying in his whole life, and that actually included fighting the king of demons… but at least now he knew that the memory thing was working (although somehow different than expected) if only he could make sense of his memories he was sure he could fix this … but first he could use his time copying the scroll for later use, at least that way he would be getting something out of all this.

You see most of the techniques in the forbidden scroll aren't common knowledge even among the ninja elite, most of the time only the Hokage is aware of its full contents, and, even him cannot use all of the techniques, since some are a little suicidal, and he only teaches the least dangerous jutsus to those who he deems worthy and ready; there are some jutsus whose only real danger is that they require huge amounts of chakra, and are mainly put into the scroll as a security measure, but there are also some very very dangerous jutsus in it, and of course in this scroll is where the Shiki Fujin is explained among other things… so all in all it is no real wonder that the scroll is consider one of the most valuable items of the village.

This was also the reason why despite the fact that Naruto knew a couple of jutsus included in the scroll he didn't know most of them: because his father wouldn't let him try them yet. His father insisted that Naruto was simply too young to do it and that even if he was strong and have a large chakra reserve, due to the constant training, he wasn't ready yet to know most of the techniques taught in the scroll… but his father wasn't here and he had (apparently) for some strange reason stole the scroll so he might as well just use it.

However he was still tired and confused, so he decided to simple let a clone copy as much as it could while he kept trying to warp his head around everything that had happened in this already bizarre day… anyhow, with that taking care of, he went back to thinking about how and why had he taken the scroll in the first place. And just like before the memory came back as soon as he started to think about it, and as soon as it did he wish it would go away…

He was a loser and the 'dead last'… Ok, so maybe that was a little harsh (or not)… but… come on…he the youngest genin EVER, breaking Uchiha Itachi's old record, he the youngest jounin in history, at the age of ten and considered one of the strongest ninjas of Konoha was now the dead last of the class and haven't even been capable of graduating because he couldn't create a simple bunshin… 'Oh, this day just keeps getting better' was all Naruto could think off when he finally figured out why he had taken the scroll: someone had tricked him, and he was willing to bet that that person was going to try to kill him and steal the scroll… he was starting to think that maybe he was dead after all and this was hell.

* * *

Naruto knew that he needed to come up with a plan and fast; 'maybe I could explain them that I'm not who they think I am…yeah and they are just going to have to take my word for it because even I cannot understand what happened, much least explain it….so that is out, there has to be a way to get out of this mess…' For half an hour Naruto just kept thinking of possible plans and he had finally settled on one which seemed to have the better chances for success and just kept praying to god that it would work.

When Naruto sensed someone coming, he ordered the clone to hide the copy of the scroll (he had managed to copy two thirds of the whole thing) and disperse itself while he put the rest of his plan in motion.

* * *

First step: Act clueless

"I've found you" was the first thing that the man in front of him said. He was dress in the typical chunnin clothes, wore his hair in a ponytail and had a scar in his nose. 'Iruka, his name was Iruka' that's the first thing Naruto though when he saw him 'what is he doing here?' this man wasn't the one he was expecting but maybe it was best this way, he remembered Iruka, from both worlds (which was a little confusing) and he knew he could trust him, so he decided to keep with the plan and see where it would take him.

"You found me already Iruka-sensei, I only had time to learn one technique" Naruto said in what he hoped was a believable impression of his other self

"One technique? What are you talking about?" Iruka asked in a clearly confused voice, apparently this was the last thing he was expecting 'what is Naruto talking about? I thought he took it as a prank or something…'

"Yeah, Mizuki-sensei said it was all I had to do and you would pass me" Naruto replied in a somewhat cheerful voice, barely managing to force the words out 'and what I can believe is that I (or at least the original Naruto) felt for it'

"Mizuki? Pass you?" Iruka was getting more and more confused something that Naruto, against his better judgment, was starting to enjoy.

"Yes, he told me it was a secret test and that as long as I learned one jutsu from the scroll I would pass" answer Naruto in a more subdued voice, trying to avoid pointing his finger like a five year old.

And then they heard it, the sound of metal flying in the wind and just as Naruto was about to move he was roughly push aside while Iruka got hit in his place and started to discuss what was going on with Mizuki who had appeared in a tree.

But Naruto couldn´t hear anything that they were saying, he was busy berating himself 'How can I be so stupid, I'm not strong enough to fight against him (in this body) and I can't even use this body appropriately' what Naruto hadn't realized before while he was planning, was that, not only was this body way weaker that the one he was used to, but he was apparently several inches shorter, which wouldn't be such a big deal except it meant that he couldn't move his body the right way or use his fighting style because of the change in proportions …which left him pretty much defenseless 'I'm dead' was his gloomy conclusion.

While Naruto was having his internal breakdown Iruka had establish that Mizuki (who used to be Naruto's teacher) was a traitor, Naruto had been tricked into stealing the scroll and Mizuki was pretty much insane, but that was not really helpful so he focused on the first two things for the moment.

"Give me the scroll" Mizuki screamed at Naruto, who had just recover enough of his senses to hear that phrase and mentally rolled his eyes 'you attacked my favorite teacher and one of the nicest people I know and I should give you the scroll because you say so, are you insane?' Naruto screamed internally but on the outside he only said "wh…what is g…going on?"

"Naruto! Whatever happens don't give him the scroll" screamed Iruka 'don't worry I won't' Naruto answer mentally since saying it at loud would probably blow his cover, but then Mizuki smiled and said in a sadistic tone "Naruto, there's no point in you having it. I'll tell you the truth" this was something Naruto hadn't actually expected and for some reason it didn't give him a very nice feeling "12 years ago…you know about the Kyubbi being killed, right?" Mizuki went on despite Iruka's protests and Naruto could actually feel his heart stop and his stomach drop…'please don't let it be, please don't let it be' Naruto begun to repeat in his head over and over again like his new own personal mantra

"Since that day a special rule was created, one you weren't supposed to ever know" Mizuki explained "Rule? What rule?" Naruto asked, all the while dreading the answer "The rule was that no one was supposed to talk about the fact that you are the demon fox"

"What?" Naruto asked at loud not really hearing the rest of the answer or caring much about it since he was pretty sure he could guess the rest, his expression of shock wasn't a part of the act, he couldn't believe it , now he was sure God (or at least the what-ever-it-was) hated him and loved messing with him, he had died sealing the blasted beast in an innocent child so his father wouldn't have to and nobody else had to die and now in a twist of fate the beast was sealed in him and he couldn't shake the suspicion that his father was the one responsible and was probably dead, something that he was trying not to dwell on, since he was pretty sure he would lose it if he did.

Naruto knew he wasn't the fox, had, in fact, already realized what had probably really happened and he didn't blame his father for it, sure he was pissed off, but he didn't really hated his dad, after all, his father had always tried to see the best in people and sometimes he was a little naïve about it.

Naruto was sure Minato firmly believed (like back at his own world) that the villagers would be able to simply get over the hate and fear the felt and treat him as the hero Minato saw him as, he could even understand the choice, after all, how could he ask someone else to sacrifice his child when he wouldn't do the same? However this was way too much information in an already complicated day, and he couldn't just shake it off… at least not yet.

So it came as a surprise (another one, something that he was tiring of) when he was pushed to the floor by his teacher who took a hit in the back and had apparently save him "why?" the question flew out of his mouth before he could stop it "Because you and I are the same, you also must have been in a lot of pain…I'm sorry I couldn't have been there to help you" The words completely sincere and heartfelt seemed to triggered something in Naruto and images from the original Naruto of this world came rushing fast and strong…Nevertheless he decided to put them aside for now, until he could actually paid them attention, and instead forced himself to focus on the rest of his plan, he was going to figure out the rest later, but, at least for now it was more important to make sure that he and Iruka survived … later he would contemplate the mess that was his life.

* * *

Second step: Run away

He couldn't win, at least not in this body in a direct fight, but he wouldn't stay there and make it easy, instead he took the scroll and ran away as fast as he could, in this body at least, in order for this to work it would had to be done with perfect timing, he hadn't counted the fact that this body was weaker and would had to use the surprise factor on his side to even things out.

He hid behind a tree just as Mizuki and Naruto/Iruka came crashing down, he listened to them as Mizuki tried to convince Iruka that Mizuki and him were the same and he was surprised and a little hurt when Iruka agreed but then he heard the words that made Iruka one of his more precious persons.

"The demon fox and you maybe are the same, but Naruto is different, he may not be perfect and he knows real pain but he is a member of the hidden leaf village, he is Uzumaki Naruto"

"You know Iruka, I decided to finish you first…hurry up and die"

* * *

Third step: Fight back

Naruto jumped in front of Iruka and caught the windmill shuriken with his right hand while holding the scroll with his left hand.

"Touch Iruka-sensei and I'll kill you" he said in a calm and deadly tone that sent shivers to Mizuki's back.

Naruto then threw the shuriken at Mizuki and, with practiced ease, made some seals and then, to everyone (sans Naruto) surprise, in a puff of smoke the forest was filled with Narutos that proceeded to beat Mizuki, venting off all the frustrations that had already set during this agonizingly long day.

Iruka, for his part, couldn't believe what he was seeing: Naruto, the dead last of the class, had not only managed to learn a forbidden jutsu but had used said Jutsu to save his life and defeat a chunnin level ninja, maybe Naruto's dream wasn't impossible for him after all.

* * *

Fourth step: Fake innocence

"Maybe I over did it" Naruto said with a foxy grin while scratching the back of his head in an attempt to appear as innocent as possible

"Come here and close your eyes, there is something I want to give you" said Iruka in a happy tone, Naruto did what he was asked, he trusted Iruka and wasn't really worried about what he was going to do, although he was a little curious. When he opened his eyes again he noticed that Iruka wasn't wearing his head band and he was surprised to realize he was wearing it 'Wait, how did I not noticed when he put it on? I must be more tired than I thought …hold on, this means…'

"Congratulations Naruto" Iruka said

Naruto couldn't believe it, he hadn't actually thought this was going to work out like this, but it actually was great that it did maybe his new life wasn't going to be so bad 'Here's to hoping'

"Let's celebrate, I'll buy you ramen" Naruto smiled he's favorite foxy grin and enveloped his teacher in a hug, this day had suck big time, but somehow he had managed to make it through it… now he just have to manage the rest of his live.

* * *

'The old man Hokage wasn't too bad' Naruto thought as he headed home.

After the fight they have taken the scroll back to the Hokage tower where the old man Sarutobi was waiting apparently, to Naruto's surprise, he was the actual Hokage. This pretty much confirmed what Naruto already knew: his father was dead and was the responsible for Naruto's fate (this world original Naruto's at least, he and the whatever-it-was were the only ones responsible for his own). And, even though he had already suspect it, he was surprised by how much it hurt knowing his father, the one who had always protected him and his most important person in the world, was gone and to top it all he wasn't sure who he could trust anymore.

The Hokage had agreed that what happened wasn't Naruto's fault and, in any case, Naruto was only following orders from a superior, so it couldn't be his responsibility either way, and he agreed that Naruto deserve the promotion as he had learnt a difficult jutsu and had helped to capture a criminal.

Naruto was very grateful and happy, at least on the outside but inside he couldn't get over the fact that his father was dead and he wasn't even supposed to know about who he was, he felt empty, confused and alone… very alone, the Hokage seemed to sense this because he insisted that Iruka took Naruto for dinner, Naruto was grateful for it, even if the Hokage didn't know the real reasons for his mood (he probably thought it was finding out about the kyubbi or something like that) he was still trying to help and Naruto actually felt better when Iruka stayed by his side and chatted with him during dinner.

Finally they said their goodbyes and Naruto decided to go home, only he realized he didn't know how to do that or where home was… but the memory arrived almost immediately and so he went on his way, after sending a clone to collect the copy-scroll and take it home, he would save it for later.

* * *

Once Naruto entered his apartment he all but collapse into the bed…today had been a long day… way too long and he still had to sort out through his memories… but he was too tired to do it now, he realized he also had to start a training regiment and probably go back to the basics and start all over, he almost screamed in frustration, who knew how long (he refused to think if ever) it will take to go back to where he was before this mess… which he still didn't understand how had started in the first place and why had all this happened, sure he had died (amazing the things you star to consider normal after a while)… but people die all the time and he didn't think everybody got to enjoy the 'pleasure' of having to live in a world completely different from their own… maybe this was the idea of whatever-it-was of a joke or maybe he just was too tired to think right now…he would fix this… tomorrow, he will fix this tomorrow and when he met again with whatever-it-was he was gonna make her pay for all of this, he was sure the last thing he heard as he succumbed to an exhausted sleep was an amused laugh from a very familiar voice and a whispered 'welcome home'.


	3. Training me

**A change in scenery**

**Chapter 2 -- Training me**

When Naruto opened his eyes again his first instinct was scream bloody murder, for the third time, in what felt like ages but had only been a day, he didn't know how he had gotten to the place where he had woken up and, being honest, he hadn't the faintest clue as to where this place was.

On the other hand, and despite the fact that he was almost sure he had never been to this place before, after all he was bound to remember something like this, he still couldn't shake the feeling of familiarity that only grew as he look around what could only be described as the strangest maze ever seen.

For a minute or two Naruto occupied himself with trying (and failing) to break, what he could only assume was, an impressive and huge genjutsu, he finally admitted to himself that this wasn't a genjutsu when he realized he couldn't break it, seeing as there wasn't a genjutsu good enough that he wouldn't break eventually or at least identify as one, this wasn't him being arrogant it was merely a fact.

Since he was little Naruto had trained tirelessly on this particular art, he had learned all about it and more, in the beginning it had only been a matter of little to no choice at all, he had been five at the time when he started his training and at the time learning taijutsu, although useful and eventually incredible important, hadn't been the best choice for a boy that age who would eventually need to fight enemies at least twice his size and three times his strength; but ninjutsu wasn't the answer either, since, even if his chakra reserves were huge for a boy that age, he wasn't even on par with a high genin much less with anything more powerful and therefore he couldn't really master any high powerful ninjutsu, not yet anyway.

So in the beginning he had focused all his efforts on the complex field of genjutsu to the point where he was considered a master on the art, despite his small age. After that he had went on to practice taijutsu, while he work out separately to developed his chakra reserves, training to a point where he could fight (and survive) and all out battle with Guy, which was really saying something, and last but not least he focused his efforts in ninjutsu and was already on his way to dominating the field; all the while learning things in other fields as medical and sealing arts and other stuff that spiked his interest.

He wasn't all powerful or anything like it, he honestly believed he still had a long way to go, and he had had to basically train until he drop for many years in order to get to where he used to be, and, even with the help of some great teachers, it had been a painstaking slow and hard task, but he had a good reason for doing it, it had been Naruto's dream to become more powerful than all the sannin put together and that had been where he was aiming from the start … and now he would simply have to start over, he wasn't about to give up on his dreams…if only he could figure out where he was first.

The first thing he realized was that he was in a maze, a tridimensional maze with stairs and doors all around him, some of which seem to defy gravity and lead nowhere, but it was still a maze, 'a scary, impossible to figure out, and seemingly endless maze' Naruto was seriously beginning to wonder what god he had offended in another life because he just couldn't, for what felt like the thousand time in the last day, avoid the thought that someone (his bets where still on the whatever-it-was that send him here) really hated him, however he discarded this train of thought in favor of contemplating some way to get out of that godforsaken place.

He couldn't avoid the feeling that someone or something was calling him over, and reluctantly he decided to follow the 'feeling' and he just hoped to god (one that didn't hated him) that he made it alive. His main reason to pursue this curse of action, was the simple fact that sitting around would lead him nowhere and walking around aimlessly would probably led him into a trap or something like that…so he went with the only other available choice and looked for the something that had been giving him the feeling.

He walk and walk and walk, through doors, stairs, a couple of walls, up and down and he was starting to feel really lost when he ended up in front of a door with an imposing appearance and a menacing, and yet familiar, air around it. He walked forward and the door seemed to sprint open by its own will, he wandered inside and into an area that was lit as a medieval room with torches and a couple of fireplaces on the side walls, but it was the front wall that claim his attention because it was in this place were a giant cage stood and inside of it there was one of the scariest thing a person could probably see, and that he had personally saw only once just before his death, in it stood the Kyubbi no kitsune, the demon king.

'My mind is a giant maze… hmmmm… at least is not a sewer' was the first thing that crossed Naruto's mind once he saw the cage, because now he knew, with absolutely certainty, that this was his mind, since that was the only logical way for the kyubbi to be trapped in a cage and for him to be staring at it, especially given that the fox was now (apparently)sealed in him, 'there goes my hope that this was just a very bad dream…this day has been way too long'.

'Why is it still sleeping?' Naruto couldn't help but wondering once he got over the shock (again) of seeing the kyubbi (again) and entering his mind without any help or any apparent reason for it 'I'm starting to wonder how much more can I take before I lose my mind…although, by the looks of it, it doesn't seems to had never been a very safe place to begin with'

Back to the original question, he knew exactly how the seal worked and there wasn't any reason for the fox to still be sleeping 'maybe he is just lazy?' The seal acted first and foremost as a prison for the demon, but, instead of simply letting him rest in peace, it was designed to slowly withdraw the fox's chakra and combine it with the jailor's chakra until the chakra of the demon was completely exhausted and the fox would eventually… disappear into another world or wherever demons went when they ceased to exist… it also had a couple of failsafe mechanisms that allow the jailor to call out a huge amount of chakra of the fox, for a limited period of time, in order for it to aid him in battle and for other nice procedures that were basically there to protect the host, the whole draining process took between 17 and 18 years depending on the amount of chakra used, but it was slowly taken place since the moment the seal had been put into place.

Either way, apparently the kyubbi wasn't interested in waking up, and Naruto honestly wasn't fascinated enough with the idea of a chat with the demon in order for him to wake him up, so instead he resolved to go back to his own body and maybe come back another day…now that he knew that this was his mind he wasn't worried about going back to the real word so he just relaxed and opened his eyes in the real world.

* * *

This time when Naruto opened his eyes heat least knew where he was (he hoped this meant that he's bad luck was over) but that didn't meant that he was happy about it, he was far from it actually and not only because this apartment, (which was apparently his) wasn't exactly the most comfortable of places, but because this wasn't the place where he wanted to be right now, he wanted his own house, he was Naruto Namikaze heir to the Namikaze clan and he shouldn't live in a rundown apartment…except that he wasn't … in fact he wasn't Naruto Namikaze, he was Naruto Uzumaki and it seemed that that meant that his home was a rundown apartment .

Naruto loved his mother, even if he hadn't actually met her or even remembered her because she died when he was just a few weeks old, he still loved her, but for the life of him he couldn't understand why he was using her last name, and what was worst, most people assumed that his last name was given to him by the Hokage so he couldn't even claim his mother's family techniques and heirlooms as the rightful heir… he so didn't like this world.

Finally done with the self pity trip, he went to get something to eat and to plan his next moves, there wasn't much in the fridge, so he had to settled for a couple of apples and a glass of water (the milk was past its expiration date) and just sit, think and hoped to come up with something good.

First he had to analyze the memories he had from his other self (or original Naruto as he decided to refer to him) information is power and at this point he needed any help he could get, then he needed to get used to this body and to the things that were different from his own word, afterwards he needed to buy more food and he desperately needed a new wardrobe (he refused to use the 'kill me' suit any longer than he had to), finally, and probably more important, he needed to organize a training schedule in order to gain back some of his strength and on a side note he wanted to investigate what caused the demon fox to attack twelve years early in this dimension, maybe there was more to the battle than what everyone had assumed.

Naruto was a Jounin (at least in mind) and as such he had had the responsibility of training and helping in the training of both genin and chunnin so, at least in theory, he knew what he had to do… but still, it might be easy with a little help, so he decided to stay focused in the basics until the new teams were assigned and then work out a schedule with the help of his new sensei.

Luckily Iruka had mentioned the night before that the team assignments were going to take place in a couple of weeks so he had time to do a couple of things and still enlist the help of the jounin-sensei in his training.

* * *

With all the decisions made and the basis of a plan already put into place he decided to get started. First the memories, so he went to meditate and submerged himself in the memories of his other self that he had gotten the night before.

_He was 3 years old and he was trying to play quietly with the toys of the orphanage by himself, he knew that if the grownups saw him they will take the toys away and would probably give him a spanking 'Because monsters like you don't deserve any toys' He didn't understand why they never let him play and he didn't know what he had done wrong, maybe if he was really nice they would let him play with the other kids for a little while…maybe_

_He was 4 years old and he was really hungry, the orphanage had kicked him out, the owners had said that they weren't willing to keep taking care of a 'demon boy' and he didn't deserve to take the space of some nice children. The children weren't nice, not to him anyways, and the guys of the orphanage hadn't really been taking great care of him, but at least they fed him (most of the time) and it was usually warmer than outside, he was alone and scared, he just wanted to go home._

_Another half year went by…Naruto was happy, the old man had given him an apartment all of his own so that he didn't have to live in the streets anymore and even some money so he could buy stuff like food and clothes, maybe things would get better now…maybe._

_Naruto was six and the old man promised him that he could go to the academy so that he could be strong like him, Naruto told him that he would be the Hokage, so that everyone would acknowledge him, nobody was going to ignore him or be mean to him and since he would be going to the school now, he was going to have friends, the old man said so and t he old man didn't lied so it had to be true…at least he hoped so._

_Naruto was seven and he was wearing the orange monstrosity for which he would become known nobody was going to ignore him now, not while he wore this…at least he desperately hoped so._

_Naruto was 8, and since nobody seemed to noticed him he decided he would be loud, nobody was nice to him so he decided he would prank them, nobody was teaching him anything so he decided he would stop trying…his mask was born._

_Naruto was 10 and the new professor wasn't mean to him, he liked that feeling, maybe someday the teacher would actually be nice…maybe_

The memories came to him like a flood and he felt like crying by the time they were done; most of them were bad, some weren't so bad but the good memories were few and far between… sometimes it sucked to be right, he had told his father, told him that he was expecting too much, that the villagers were going to be hurt and they wouldn't be able to handle the true, they would simple blame the child for everything that had happened, mistake the jailer for the prisoner, but his father wouldn't hear it, he believe in the village and Naruto was sorry that he couldn't have been right.

Naruto had grown up to the smiles of those around him, and the admiration and friendship of almost everyone he knew, those where some of the perks of being first the son of his father and later who he was. He had seen the smiling faces of the villagers and now he was seeing the scowling ones, he would get through this, he always did.

In some ways he was relived it wasn't worse, a part of him had fear it would be, and he guessed that to the Hokage and most of the villagers all these things were minor wounds, they haven't hurt him deeply, they had just been some simple and small injustices. But he had been only a child and those small wounds were deeper than they seem in the small body, he didn't have some happy memories to forget the bad ones, he couldn't find comfort in the better times, all he could do was hope, hope and dream it would get better. He prayed to whatever god was listening that his father had honored his last whishes, he couldn't deal with the idea of condemning some innocent child to the same fate he had seen he would rather to go through it again.

Analyzing his memories of his own childhood and the new ones he had some mix feelings. For one part, he couldn't help to feel extremely lucky, seeing how his life could had turned up under different circumstances made him tremendously glad to grow up like he did; for the other part he was mad, no matter that he understood he still didn't have to like it and the behavior of the villagers hurt him and piss him off, how could they honestly believe that he was kyubbi resurrected.

'They don't believe it or if they do they need some serious help, I mean how can they treat the 'demon' like this? They're hoping that when he loses it they'll be the first ones he kills? Honestly what are they thinking?'… so essentially he was upset… on another hand he was a little puzzled by certain things 'why did the old man Hokage didn't tell them who my parents were? It probably would have helped me in the long run … so why keep it a secret? … And where the hell is everybody? I mean, sure my parents are dead, but what about everyone else? ... My brothers, my sisters, my uncle and aunt… I mean, I know we aren't related by blood but they were always around and I thought they, out of everyone, would have seen me for me…"

This last question brought with it a strong feeling of nostalgia, he missed his home, his family and friends, people in this world may look similar but they weren't the same and he couldn't get rid of the emotion that seem to be holding his heart in a visceral grip: loneliness…he had never noticed it before but he had always had someone (more like several people) to rely on, he had always counted on them and they could count on him…now that list didn't took all the fingers in one of his hands and that thought alone let him feeling more empty than ever before.

Taking a moment to compose himself Naruto decided to focus on his plan, eventually he would find persons to add to his small list and when he did he needed to be ready to protect them, because now he knew how his soul felt without them and he vow to make everything in his power never feel like that again.

* * *

Well, now at least he knew where he stood, and why he was wearing the bright orange jump suit that screamed 'kill me', he was a pariah and haven't received any proper training, he was going to have to start at the beginning and hopefully he would work it out from there, he would have to be cunning and careful with his new knowledge, keep it hidden for a while and start showing it slowly, he couldn't risk being caught and doubted, that will led him to all kinds of trouble and he would rather avoid that for as long as possible. However he wasn't sure he could convincible act the cheerful idiot part all the time, nevertheless maybe he could chuck it all to finding out about the kyubbi and becoming a genin? That was as good excuse as any and nobody was going to question it (much) thus for now it will have to do, and now to the rest of his plan.

The first step was that he needed to familiarize himself with this body, luckily it wasn't so different than his own and as long as he was careful he could still manage most things, but it was still smaller and that meant that his movements were clumsy and his mind sometimes overcompensated, causing him to, for lack of a better term, trip with his own feet, it had already happen the night before and he had been humiliated, that alone was bad enough, but in a real battle it could led to a fatal mistake and that was a risk he couldn't (and wouldn't) take, it was already going to be hard enough get used to the limits that his new 'condition' forced upon him without any additional complications, so he started with a couple of stretches and simple exercises to help himself adjust to this body.

After half an hour or so, he decided to take a break, he knew it will take a couple of days, if he was lucky, to completely ge used to his new body, so in the mid time he was gonna try to be patient (even if that had never been his forte). So with that in mind he decided to go shopping first and worry later.

Naruto knew from his recently acquired memory that most shops would either refuse him service or charge him colossal prices for substandard products thus he needed to make some 'adjustments' for his shopping trip.

First he needed to examine his appearance…what he saw wasn't all that surprising (if you valiantly ignored the orange outfit) he wasn't all that different from his 'old' appearance, he was shorter, but that was mostly due to the lack of healthy eating habits and proper training, he was skinnier, again for the same reasons, and had whisker-like marks in his face; other than that he was exactly the same: almost a carbon copy of his father. 'Maybe they are all blind' it was the only justification he could think of as to why nobody had noticed the family resemblance before… 'I'm getting tired of this…ah, well there really isn't anything I can do about it, maybe someday they will figure it out, but right now it doesn't matter'

He needed to change his appearance, but a henge was still too obvious, fortunately nobody had bother to teach this world's Naruto the correct way to use this technique so by some strange luck Naruto actually learned something more useful.

The henge is for the most part a genjutsu, a simple and easy genjutsu that doesn't require much control or power but still a genjutsu, in other words is meant to be an illusion, you aren't supposed to be able to change, just trick the others into thinking you did, however Naruto's technique was the real deal when you changed you actually changed. Is basically like your usual henge is a bunshin and Naruto's transformation a kage bunshin they may look the same but are actually completely different. Of course the original Naruto didn't have a clue about this fact and just assumed that the technique was supposed to work like that, so no one knew of this technique and, for a while at least, he will keep it like that, maybe later he would tell them, but right now it was a perfect way to trick the pesky shopkeepers.

So he changed his appearance, careful to not change the dimensions too much (it wouldn't do for the clothes not to fit) and checked his new appearance in the mirror: brown straight hair, green eyes and no scars, a simple black t-shirt, brown pants that stopped about mild calf and white tennis to complete the look and nobody would recognize him.

His first stop was the grocery store, he needed more food, he wasn't really picky but he draw the line at expired food, so that basically leave out anything currently at his house and meant he would have to buy many things…'I just hope I'm done in time for lunch' The catchier didn't looked him twice and only packed everything and gave him the right price (which was a third part of what the original Naruto would have had to pay) so with everything packed he send a clone home and asked him to unpack and start getting the lunch ready while he went to the clothing store.

In the store he bought a couple of simple t-shirts (like the one he was wearing) for everyday training, along with simple dark blue pants for the same propose. Aside from that he bought 3 black pants that were tight in his waist and then started to lose around the thigh, allowing easy movements, a couple of baggy brown pants that were comfortable, 2 long sleeved shirts (one gray and one black), 3 shirts whit short sleeves in blue, green and black, a black vest whit many pockets (that reminded him of his jounin vest), black fingerless gloves and one pair of black combat boots. All in all he was pleased with his choices and happy he wouldn't have to wear the orange monstrosity anymore.

* * *

After a quick lunch and a change of clothes he decided to analyze his current level and design a training plan based on it, he wasn't really expecting much, he already knew that it was a miracle that the original Naruto could actually use a couple of techniques with the training (or the lack of it) that he had to endure, but he had already done it once and, even if he wasn't looking forward to doing it again, he knew what had to be done and he was going to do it, he just had to know from where to start, and to that propose he headed to the clearing where he first arrived to this world.

After a couple of hours checking his abilities and testing his potential he decided that maybe (and that was a big maybe) god had forgiven him for whatever he had done in the first place, it wasn't going to be an easy task getting to an appropriated level and undue all the damage that had already been done but it wasn't as hard as he had first thought it would be. For starters there was one thing that had him almost giddy with pleasure: he was a chakra mammoth…perhaps he wouldn't kill the whatever-it-was on sight.

Naruto had always been powerful and had had a large chakra reserve, that was mainly due to the fact that both his parents were powerful in their own right, and that he had been training every day since he was four, but apparently having the kyubbi sealed in him had made him triple the size of his chakra, and that was without any source of proper training, so right now he was at sannin level in his chakra reserves and Naruto felt like singing, this was probably the first good news he had received since he arrived in this world…so of course it also had its setbacks.

Because the huge amount of power and the small amount of training, Naruto's control sucked…big time; it wasn't that he didn't have the right amount for let's say a medical jutsu; it was that he used from 3 to 5 times the necessary amount for any technique and couldn't even make it stable enough in most of the cases. Had his power levels been monitored in his childhood (like they were in his own world) this fact would have been noticed and fixed without mayor problems, but because he was a pariah and nobody bother enough to give him the time of the day if they could help it, nobody had ever done nothing about it and the problem had keep getting worst as he grew up…and now it was going to take a miracle and some intense training (more like torture) to solve it.

For a moment or two Naruto entertained the idea of going to the Hokage and demand an explanation for this huge oversight… 'yep, that would go well…and I could probably convince him that some strange hero that was walking by at the correct time, just felt the need to explain all this to me, because there is NO way he is actually going to believe that I, the 'dead last', actually figure it out all on my own, and there is still the fact that there isn't anything that the Hokage could do; is already too late for the easy way out…just my luck'

He was just going to have to do the time and hopefully it would be enough or maybe the miracle option would come true, if only he could be sure there was a god that didn't hated him he would have started praying, but as it was he still had his doubts (specially about the whatever-it-was) so he decided to go with plan a) torture….I mean training.

As far as his other abilities went, well…he didn't have any…he hadn't ever learned any type of taijutsu (not even the academy one) because nobody would teach him and there wasn't anybody with whom he could practice, he couldn't cast a genjutsu to save his life, he couldn't dream to practice any medical jutsu for the time being (he was going to fix that eventually), he hadn't ever touched a sword or any weapon for that matter except kunai and shuriken and he wasn't really all that good with those either … 'This is still going to be hard'

The only things he had going for his side were stealth and traps (which came from his pranks) survival skills, albeit basic ones, and Fuuinjutsu (sealing jutsu), which he could still remember and use without any sort of training… 'That's something at least…'

He couldn't do much for the moment, and he would rather wait for the teams assignments to start any serious program, so for the moment he was going to concentrate in 2 things: strengthening his body and improving his control.

In order to improve his body (fast enough for him) he needed a couple of things, first he needed gravity seals and resistance seals, those where hard to do but worked ten times better that any weights since they affected the whole body and not just a few areas and he had been trained by two of the greatest seals masters of the world so he wasn't really worried about making them.

He would also had to design a workout routine, 'not much just a light routine: 30 laps around the forest (to avoid being seen), 50 push-ups, 50 sit-ups, stretches, 20 laps in the river and 1 hour of practice from the basic katas of my own style every morning and every night should be enough…if not I could always add something more'

The control thing was a little trickier he could use shadow clones, one of the advantages of all that chakra power, but it would still take the better part of a month just to get his control to an acceptable level…'well is better than nothing I guess'. He would had to start with the leaf floating exercise and the tree walking, maybe by the end of the month he would be able to do the water walking exercise for a couple of minutes, but it would take at least two months to really master any of those exercises.

In the mid time he would also needed to master a few jutsus, his arsenal was really small right now and it didn't even include the bunshin, which he would had to fix and fast, a ninja that didn't know the tree basic jutsus was just depressing (except for Rock Lee but he was a different story), I guess that's it for the next couple of weeks, 'man this is just going to be boring as hell …well at least I'll have time to figure out what to do around other people because I refuse, on principle, to act like an idiot and embarrass myself.'

The only other thing that worried Naruto was the Kyubbi attack, but he couldn't take the risk of getting caught intruding where he shouldn't… at least not right now and with his current skills the risk was just to high… so he was going to have to wait around until a chanced presented itself. 'I also had to find a way to see my dad and mom's things…specially the special kunai and the Uzumaki's sword' with that final thought he headed home to get some rest and prepare what he needed for his training.

* * *

It had already been a week and the training was going well, honestly, he was actually surprised by the speed to which his body seem to recover and on further investigation he discovered that somehow the remains of the kyubbi chakra that weren't completely purified, somehow served to enhance his healing rate which allowed him not only to recover more quickly but his muscles seemed to grow to a faster pace …all in all he was happy to discover another good thing about hosting his own personal demon and had already upped his training to accommodate for the special healing.

His control was already improving and he had already learnt a couple of useful jutsus, although he hadn't actually been able to master them yet, but at least he could make them work in a basic level. He finally managed the bunshin as soon as his control improved and he had already relearn a couple of wind techniques like Futon: Daitoppa (Wind Release: Great Breakthrough) and some other small C-rank moves, he still was a far cry from ready, but at least he no longer felt completely defenseless, he also had managed a couple more difficult jutsus like the Bunshin Daibakuha (Clone Great Explosion) and the Shuriken Kage Bunshin no Jutsu (Shuriken Shadow Clone Technique) which actually were easier to accomplish than the smaller ones, but he knew he needed a wider repertory and that even if he could use this techniques he was still wasting more energy than necessary so he still kept with his control training.

He had decided that he loved the shadow clone technique, he didn't think that he would have made it without it; of course he had known for quite some time that when a clone disperse itself all its knowledge gets transfer to the original, but that hadn't meant much before he took the wrong turn to the afterlife; because even if you could manage the technique maintaining it while training was usually impossible, but then again so was creating more than a couple dozen copies and he could make hundreds, and on an even bigger note coming back to life was also unattainable but he had managed to do that (although it was more the whatever-it-was who was responsible, but still… ) so, in any case, now that he had such huge chakra reserves he could train with a couple (hundreds) of clones and increase the speed of his training, and he was sure that was the only reason why he had already accomplished the tree walking and leaf hovering exercises, sure he had yet to master all the levels but considering where he had begun this was already something huge and as a result he had found a new favorite jutsu: the Kage Bunshin no Jutsu.

However right now he was taking a break in order for him to take his registration photography, he had decided to were his black pants with the grey shirt and the black vest over it, his headband was hanging loosely around his neck (like it always did) which set free his spiky hair and when all's was said and done he look so much like his father that it was scary, 'but why would I hide who I am? It's not like I'm doing it on propose or anything and what if I found it funny? It's still not my fault…well maybe a little, but still…' so that's why right now the Hokage was looking at him with ill disguised interest and why the other ninjas in the room seemed like they had just seen a ghost… 'Ok, maybe is hilarious…but came on I'm not even wearing the cape…mmm, maybe I should have… that would have been amazing…oh well too late now, maybe another day…'


	4. A new me

**A change in scenery**

**Chapter 3 -- A new me**

One thing was true about Naruto no matter in which dimension you were talking about: Naruto was a prankster as simple as that and, to be quite honest, he loved every minute of it. This, if you actually thought about it, made perfect sense because someone with a huge amount of energy and an even bigger imagination is bound to found a few jokes the perfect hobby.

However where the original Naruto was already an outcast and didn't lose anything for breaking havoc among the villagers, the new Naruto had grown up as the 'honorable son of the Hokage' and 'The biggest prodigy ever seen' as a result is understandable that he couldn't afford to be obvious about his pranks, so instead he enjoyed watching people in difficult situations brought by his own actions or inactions and then claim perfect innocence about the whole thing, hence the reason why, instead of painting his face in some wild way for his ninja registration photo, he opted to spend some time making all humanly possible to look like a clone from his father without using a henge or anything similar, which was actually very easy considering how much they already looked alike.

"Hey, Old man" Naruto said, when the Hokage started to go through the registration papers, in a small imitation of the original Naruto "how do you like my new look?"

Naruto had to physically restrain himself from rolling in the floor laughing at the expression of the Hokage and his assistant, but in his head he was having a field day. The Hokage look a strange mix between being remorseful, which Naruto believed he deserved, being impress and being put out, all in all a rare show of emotions; however it was the assistant face which seemed the more funny to Naruto, he simply look like he had just seen a ghost, and the best part was there wasn't anything they could do to make him change it, since he hadn't actually done anything wrong, it wasn't his fault that he looked like his father.

"Your new look suits you well Naruto, but I must say I'm surprised by the change, what brought this on?"

"Well… you see old man, I decided to celebrate by spoiling me with a new look and I thought this clothes look really cool!" Naruto said with as much excitement as he could master

"I understand Naruto, like I said you look really good" the Hokage replied in a patient and conciliatory tone, apparently used to the hyper activeness.

'I can't believe he actually bought that excuse, it was actually the first thing I could think in such short notice, I really need to work on my pretexts, but maybe having a reputation for being dense has its advantages apparently they'll believe anything I said as long as it doesn't seem completely impossible…umm, this has possibilities…' Naruto was so immerse in his inner musings that he completely missed the entrance of a hyper active kid with a strange helmet and a weird guy with black clothing and sunglasses (even thought they were inside and it wasn't really that bright), the boy had also, apparently, tripped with his own feet or maybe his cape-like scarf and was now screaming something about traps… and apparently blaming him… '*sigh*why can I ever have some peace? And who the hell does this brat think he is?'

Naruto decided to shut the kid up and used his scarf to pick him up, this seem to annoy the glasses-wearing guy who looked at him with barely concealed hate, and demanded that he dropped the brat, claiming he was the Hokage's grandson, 'Oh, so this is Konohamaru…I think I like my version better…even though, now that I think about it, there isn't much of a difference… whatever I still don't give a damn about who his parents were and this place is getting boring I better find something to entertain me' so with a punch in konohamaru's head and a passing "see you later, old man" Naruto exited the office leaving a very confused group of people behind.

'Why is the kid following me? And why does he suck so much at it?' "Hey kid, what's up?" Naruto asked appearing behind the kid (effectively scaring the crap out of him) and just like that the kid proceeded to make Naruto his boss and demanded that he teach him one of the original Naruto's techniques the 'Sexy no jutsu' and deciding that he didn't have anything better to do and that the hyper kid was at least amusing Naruto decided to do what he asked; which turned out to be very difficult considering the boy had no clue as to the meaning of the world sexy, but after a couple of demonstrations the kid actually managed to pull it off, afterwards they decided to rest a little and Naruto decided to ask something which had been bugging him for a while…

"Hey, Kon why do you where that stupid caped-like scarf?"

"It was a gift and it looks great!" Konohamaru screamed to the seven winds and then added in a more quiet voice "what did you call me?"

"Oh? I called you Kon, I mean Konohamaru is cool and all, but a little long and there is no way I'm going to call you 'honorable grandson' or something like that" Naruto answered lost in his own thoughts about his own and (in his opinion) much cooler cape, without realizing that he had just done something that Konohamaru had dreamt about his whole life: he had acknowledge him as his own person.

But suddenly their day dreaming was interrupted by the screaming black dress idiot…I mean ninja that had been chasing Kon a while ago and who seemed very put out about finding him with the local pariah and started preaching about it, now normally Naruto would had simply ignored the man but when he went on speaking nonsense about short-cuts to becoming the Hokage, he decided that it was best to teach the man a lesson (and humiliate him a little) and decided to use his clones combined with his 'old' sexy no jutsu into a new and newly named move named harem no jutsu and render the ninja-wannabe unconscious.

"That was awesome bro, I'm going to become Hokage in no time with moves like that" screamed the exited 6 year old, however one thing Naruto couldn't allow was people to underestimated the work that must be done to become the leader of the village, and so he started to speak in a serious no nonsense tone that the original Naruto had never used before, but that seem to flow naturally from the current one.

"You're wrong Kon, being Hokage is more than flashy techniques, it means sweating until you pass, crying with every loss but still getting back up, saying goodbye to loved ones and being able to put all that behind to fight for the protection of every member of this village, and believe with every fiber of your soul in the power of your friends and comrades, it means risking it all without any doubt, there are no short-cuts, think you could do that Kon?" Naruto finally asked with a peaceful smile, which seemed to lighten up his face.

"I'm going to do it bro, believe it!" Konohamaru exclaimed with as much conviction as he could master.

"That's good kiddo" Naruto replied smiling kindly "Then I'll be happy to help you to reach your dreams Kon, and that is a promise"

* * *

A couple of days later Naruto was ready to be sorted into a genin team. He had continued his own training and had kept progressing steadily and, although still a far cry from his usual standards, he was already in his way of becoming a great ninja, he had already managed to do the hovering leaf exercise with any part of his body, and was working on the same idea with the tree walking, he had decided to wait a little on learning (or relearning) new techniques in order to shift the blame on his new sensei, and was focusing all his energy on training his body and his chakra control, he had already tripled the weight in his seals and was beginning to reach a stage in which a proper training partner was a necessity, so in a way he was really looking forward to a new team, however there were still two (or three) things worrying him.

In first place was the fact of who was going to be on his team and how to react to them, of course he already suspected he was going to be on the same team as the rookie of the year, seeing as he was the dead last, however many of his academy memories where missing or simply too blurry to understand and thus he had no clue about who said rookie was and therefore hadn't been able to plan in advance, 'I hoped he isn't a total bastard'.

His second problem was the fact that he didn't know how to pass the true test, of course he, being a jounin, knew of the teamwork test and disapprove of it 'How can a team of newly ranked genin, which has known they were a team for the grand total of one day is expected to work as a acceptable team in order to defeat a jounin teacher is still a mystery to me, but still a test is a test'

With the training Naruto endured for the last weeks, and the surprised element on his side, he was sure he could come up with something to past the test, however that would mean showing all his cards (something he loathed to do), and there was no way to explain his progress, so that wasn't really an option; and even if by some miracle he actually managed to pull the whole thing out, he still didn't know how that was going to show teamwork, as far as he could tell he's only choice was hope that his new teammates weren't complete selfish idiots.

On last place, but equally scary, where the D-rank missions, he had already endured them when he was a freshly new graduate at the amazing age of 5 years old, and still hated them to this day, and now apparently he was going to have to push through them again (that is if he actually passed the stupid test), 'somebody up there, probably the whatever-it-was, really has it in for me, my life just isn't fair'

It was with this depressing thoughts that he made his way to the academy, where he hadn't been for almost 8 years, or a couple of weeks (depending on your point of view) and headed for his usual class wearing the same clothes he had put on for his picture, he just loved to freaked out anyone who was willing to look him close enough, besides without the orange 'I'm here, kill me please' suit, most people had to look twice to realize who he was and then a couple of times to get over the shock of his new looks, so he was really enjoying himself.

* * *

As soon as he went into class his mind went into overdrive, he knew almost everybody in this class (well everybody important for the story) from his own world, and the memories from this world were also rushing back, so he needed some time to put things in perspective, he headed to a quiet corner where he wouldn't be noticed and started to sort through his memories as he took the time to review his potential alleys.

Kiba Inuzuka, the youngest son of the Inuzuka clan and his partner akamaru, according to his sister Hana, he was a very loud child like the usual Inuzukas and was very good in clan techniques back in his own world, and according to his new memories he was fun to be with and one of the few persons who wasn't cruel to him, at least without a reason, he still mock him for his lack of strength but he wasn't particularly mean, definitely a potential ally.

Hinata Hyuga, the heiress of the Hyuga clan, according to his world memories she was a strong kunoichi who actually graduated at an early age, she was known as a genius in her own clan techniques and also for combining them with ninjutsu and was on her way of becoming a medical-nin, on personal level she was a friendly and sweet girl, who was nice with her friends and family, overall the pride of the Hyuga clan; however when he got the memories from this world Naruto he almost fell from his chair, 'How in the heavens name one of the sweetest and strongest girls I've ever known become a painfully shy girl too scared to fight her own shadow?' As far as he could tell Hinata wasn't exactly well liked in her clan and that was why her shyness seemed to had grown; however the original Naruto hadn't paid her much attention and there wasn't much information to work with… he was going to have to look into it; it also seemed she had a crush on the original Naruto, that was something to think over… he didn't know how but he was going to find a way to help her…the potential was there she just didn't see it, absolutely an ally and possibly a friend.

Shino Aburame, heir of his clan, in both worlds seemed to be pretty much the same, a quiet guy to whom you could trust your life without a second thought; definitely someone you want on your team.

Choji Akimichi, heir of his clan a great fighter and apparently a nice guy and friendly type, if only he focused more in fighting than eating… still a potential ally.

Shikamaru Nara; the smartest and laziest person in either world, a genius and a nice friend, who loved watching clouds but would do almost anything to protect his friends, seems to have a good relationship with this world Naruto and ally and a friend for sure.

Ino Yamanaka, and easy going and nice girl although with a strong temper, a good an powerful kunoichi and proud heiress of her clan…that was in his world anyway, apparently in this world she had fallen victim of the world spread disease known as fan-girls, and didn't appeared to have a clue about what a good kunoichi was… no idea about her maybe an eventual ally if she was ever cured from her illness.

Sakura Haruno, 'never heard of her, I think she was Ino's friend…worth looking into…oh, wait I love her, yeah right, I have never and will never date a fan-girl, especially one so violent. What I am supposed to do about her? Pretend I move on? Well she never listened to me anyway, maybe she won't mind?'

Sasuke Uchiha, 'Itachi's little brother, a good ninja with a good head above his shoulders, not much personal experience but from what I heard he had good potential, just not as much as his brother….Ok, forget it' Naruto was sure he was about to go into shock, Sasuke was the rookie of the year and a selfish bastard with half the power of the one he knew, and was apparently worshiped as the 'last surviving Uchiha' because he was an orphan 'How? Where is Itachi? This doesn't make sense…I really need more time to deal with all of this…' however god didn't listen to his prayers, as was becoming usual, and, while he had been busy sorting the info overload, Iruka had given a long and boring speech and was now explaining the sorted teams and just as Naruto was about to decide whether it was better to scream at loud or to quietly pass out, he read his name.

"Ok…next is team seven, Haruno Sakura, Uzumaki Naruto and Uchiha Sasuke"

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" Naruto couldn't help it… this was a nightmare a cruel and hellish nightmare, he was so going to kill whoever was responsible for this, he was sure he couldn't think in a worst case if he tried, combined with his recent shocks and the remaining of his original self and this was just too much, he had to scream, and now Iruka was explaining something about teams balance and he was tempted to tell him to go to hell, 'yeah right, Sasuke is so high in his own cloud that he doesn't have a chance in a real fight, that girl probably can't win a battle against her shadow and I'm so badly trained that Tsunade has a better chance of winning a bet that I do of winning a real fight against enemy ninja, we are DOOM' Naruto just sit back not even hearing or caring about his new 'teammates' comments, he just wanted this day to end.

* * *

Naruto couldn't be bothered with trying to mingle with his new team; as soon as they were free to go he ran to the academy roof and tried make sense of all he had learnt in the last hour, 'This world sucks…maybe I should just lose the test and try again next time, at least I wouldn't be in a team with the banshee and the emo…I feel so sorry for our sensei…I need to find out what happened to the Uchihas it can't be too hard…I mean something like that was probably big news…umm, another mystery to my growing list of questions, I'm getting a headache"

After lunch, Naruto sat as far as possible from his 'team' and waited patiently for his sensei…at least for ten minutes while the rest of the rookies went away and then decided to get some sleep, (since training was impossible), so he was surprised when a familiar presence approached the room, what felt like five minutes later (but had actually been 3 hours) and he was already in the process of restraining his impulses and controlling his heartbeat when the door was suddenly open by a familiar man.

The man was wearing the typically ninja clothing, including his jounin vest and his weapon poach tied in his right leg, however there was a black mask covering his lower face and his head band was over his left eye leaving only his right eye visible and finally he had silver gravity defying hair, he was Hatake Kakashi , his brother in all but blood… and yet it wasn't, he didn't have a single memory of this man from this world, 'what does it mean? Why hasn't he been taking care of me?' and the question he couldn't bear to ask 'does he hate me?'

While all this was going inside Naruto's mind, Kakashi completely ignorant of this fact was addressing them "My first impression of you guys…I don't like you, meet me in the roof" and in a puff o smoke he was gone, Naruto push his feeling as far as they would go, he needed all his awareness if he was hoping to deceive Kakashi no matter in which world he was.

"Well, let's begin introducing ourselves" Kakashi said once everyone had joined him at the roof.

"What do you want to know?" ask the current fan-girl, like they were asking something difficult, Naruto resisted the urge to roll his eyes.

"Likes, dislikes, dreams, things like that…" replied Kakashi in a bored tone.

"Why don't you go first?" suggested Naruto 'I need time to figure out an answer' he added mentally, and tune out whatever was said next while he thought his answer, he was sure Kakashi wasn't going to said anything useful, Sakura was going to go into fan-girl mode and Sasuke was going to do some sort of emo-rant, he was pretty sure the original Naruto would had talked about ramen and shouted his dream about being Hokage, however he didn't have liked any of this ideas especially the becoming Hokage part, he knew what it was really like, he saw his father pushing himself to the limit and beyond in order to do his job, he saw him loosing friends and even risking his own family, Naruto was a warrior and he understood all that came with the position of leader and even if he dreamt of being strong enough, smart enough, powerful enough to protect his loved ones, being Hokage was never one of his dreams thanks very much.

So maybe Kakashi was in the right track: be vague enough to answer without answering, but not enough to be obvious. He tuned in just in time to hear the end of the emo's rant.

"…the resurrection of my clan and to kill a certain man". 'Uh? Wonder what that was about, anyway my turn'

"I have many likes and very few dislikes, I hate bullies and love ramen and my friends, my hobbies are training and pranks and my dream is become strong enough to protect my precious people" He couldn't lie about his dream, that was his nindo after all.

Kakashi seem a little surprised, but he didn't let it show, so Naruto decided to ignore the reaction it in favor of maintaining his doubts and feelings at bait, something that required a lot more energy than what he thought was fair.

"Okay, so tomorrow we start our ninja duties" 'Uh? What about the test I'm still not sure I should pass?' "First we are going to do something just the four of us"

"What is it?"

"Survival training" Naruto resisted the urge to roll his eyes, 'so dramatic, he couldn't just come out and say it, I mean he just has to make us figure it out in order to scare us… I wonder what should we do…I mean I wanna pass (mainly because I hated the academy when people actually thought me anything) and start training but I really hate my team (and the chores) besides I'm not really sure we could pass even if we want (which I'm sure they do, but who cares?)…maybe I should just trust in my luck (even though I'm sure I don't really have any if the last day has been any indication)…yeah, I'm gonna go with that…um? What is this paper…maybe I should try to pay attention once in a while? '

While Naruto had been busy in his own world, Kakashi had finished explaining the survival training and had passed the papers with the rest of the information, so Naruto being Naruto had miss the information about not eating breakfast and was therefore unable to inform his teammates about the fact they should eat breakfast, not that they would have listen to him anyway…

* * *

The next morning Naruto woke up at five o'clock like usual and sent five clones to the meeting place, where one of them was going to pretend to be the real Naruto while the rest would scout the place, he knew that Kakashi wasn't probably going to arrive until at least two hours after the agreed time and saw no reason to waste his time waiting around for his sensei to show up while he could spend said time training, like usual, when Kakashi finally decided to show up one of his clones would inform him (by dispersing himself) and the rest would keep up the act until he arrived.

This clones had a greater amount of chakra than the normal shadow clones and this would allowed them to last longer and even to use a few techniques, which was really all that was needed in the test since he had decided it would be safer to act as closely as possible to the original Naruto did, at least while he didn't have the excuse of a decent teacher. So he went with his normal routine without a worry in the world.

Three hours later, Naruto was in the middle of pleasantly swimming in the river, when one of his clones dispersed himself and informed him of the arrival of his sensei, so he decided to pack up his things and see what was going on in the training grounds

When Naruto arrived at the training grounds, carefully disguising his chakra signature (not an easy task), he saw that his clone was fighting his sensei who appeared to be reading certain orange book while fighting him over with his free hand.

Naruto watched as his clone replaced himself with weaker clones in order to avoid destruction over and over again, and how his sensei was so sure of himself that he didn't noticed it, not even once, he watch as his sensei left him 'trapped' in order to capture the other two, not even bothering to check if that was the real Naruto, all in all Naruto was disappointed of his brother.

If Naruto taught that his teammates would manage to give him a better impression in this test, he was severely disappointed. Sakura, whose only redeeming quality as far as Naruto could tell was the nearly perfect chakra control, was caught in a D-ranked genjutsu that for some reason actually made her pass out and Sasuke 'the rookie of the year' was caught with relative ease by Kakashi and the only reason he actually managed to cause the man any problems at all was because Kakashi was also underestimating him (but not as much as Naruto for some reason). And those two who were supposed to be the smartest of the year and they didn't even considered for one second the possibility of a trick in the test or even working together with each other?

However it was the end result which almost made him lose control, 'Ok, I know that Sasuke-teme was actually better than me, or at least better than what I was pretending to be, but for the love of all that is holy how did the banshee whose only contribution through the whole test was to scream, run and pass out was considered better than me…maybe he does hate me? *sigh* I'm really starting to hate this place…' For some reason this test included the humiliation of one of his members by tying him to a stump and the rest of the team eating lunch in front of him, and Kakashi had decided that Naruto was the worst of the three

'How? I honestly don't have a clue…and another thing, how is this supposed to help with teamwork? By making one of the members feel inferior to the other two?' Naruto was too busy dreaming of ways to kill his 'team' in order to actually listening to the information his teacher(?) was saying about the test, but he managed to keep ranting in his head 'Of course, it was about teamwork, how would anybody actually expect that a newbie genin takes on a teacher jounin on his own? Only someone as conceited as the Uchiha would believe something like that…' By the time Kakashi left them with orders of not to give 'him' any lunch, Naruto was starting to feel relieved he wasn't actually going to be in a team with those two, however no sooner had those thoughts crossed his mind that he realized this was another test and felt like banging his head with a tree, he was beginning to think it would be better to have failed the test, when the self-absorbed Uchiha actually decided to share his lunch… 'maybe there is hope?'

"You….Pass" kakashi said happily as he appeared before the would-be-genins. 'Kakashi is just as dramatic as ever… I don't know if I should be excited or depressed about passing the stupid test…for now I guess I'm going to reserve my opinion' "Those who break the rules are trash … but those who don't take care of their comrades are lower than trash" 'Nice speech… I'm still not buying it, and they went and left me tie up…great team…I'm so happy I passed…*sigh* I've seem to be doing that a lot lately"

Naruto dispersed his clone and was about to go blow some steam, when he spotted his new 'sensei' and black haired teammate a short distance away and decided to investigate what they were talking about.

"You know Sasuke, I noticed some flaws in your movements as we were fighting, I'm sure if we work together we should be able to fixed them in no time, how about it? Are you up for some extra training?"

"Sure Kakashi, anything to make me stronger"

And like that they were off, and Naruto just couldn't get away fast enough…

Naruto ran until he arrived at his favorite clearing, he couldn't believe it, he knew that at the academy some teachers offered special training, particularly to those who were behind in class, he knew the original Naruto had never been offered some help until Iruka arrived, and even he couldn't do much alone but at least he had tried, he knew it wasn't fair, he knew it was cruel to do that to a child, but the teachers were just faces which he would forget and he had always managed to ignore their treatment, but this hurt, he was surprised by how much it hurt.

He KNEW,for a fact, that all jounin- sensei were ordered to pay particular attention to those who were further behind in their training in order for the groups to even out, he knew he was the one who needed more help (as far as they knew), but he could even had understood Sakura, but Sasuke didn't need it, and yet while he, Naruto, was left behind and forgotten, Sasuke had been offered additional help, and while all that hurt and made him angry it was the identity of the one responsible which cut him deeper…his brother had been the one who'd done it…

'No, not my brother, my ero-niisan wouldn't have done something like this, NOT ever, not the brother who helped me with techniques behind my father's back, the one who always have my back in missions, the one… NO, this is not my brother, he's just a twisted version of my brother…but then why does it hurt so much?'


	5. Training me 2

**A/N: **Thanks for the reviews if you got any particular plot idea I'll be happy to hear it and maybe use it, right now I'm trying to decide if Naruto should have any pairing and with whom, so if you got any ideas let me now.

* * *

**A change in scenery**

**Chapter 4 – Training me (2)**

Naruto spent the rest of the afternoon in the clearing, alternating between destroying defenseless trees and trying not to drown in his self pity, also he allocated some well spend time (in his opinion) into threatening the whatever-it-was that was responsible for this whole dimensional mess in the first place and when he finally ran out of energy and the moon was already shinning in the sky he headed home and tried to block all the horrible memories his mind kept conjuring and get some sleep, tomorrow couldn't be far enough in his opinion.

When the new day finally arrived at exactly five o'clock (sometimes routine sucked), Naruto decided to forgo the training in favor of planning, anything to keep his mind of some things.

At first he had hoped his jounin teacher, being an actually jounin, would be able to see past the baseless prejudices which blinded most of the village to his situation and would actually spent some time helping him to plan his training schedule and even executing it, however that didn't seemed to be the case which left him alone…again… 'Well there is no use on crying over spill milk, I better get some work done…'

Now, while his current routine might have been enough in order to get back in shape it wasn't nearly what was needed it for a genin ninja in training, so he had to improve that schedule and actually plan some long term goals, but as much as he was a capable instructor, there was a limit to how much he could advance on his own, and how much time it would take to reach his goals, and with a little help that time was decreased drastically, thus after careful consideration Naruto decided to ask for some help, not from his own 'sensei' but from other people in the village. It was a risk, but even if they declined he would at least knew that he had tried all his options before giving up, moreover he refused to considered that the number of people who didn't saw him as the fox in the whole village was really so small.

At his current level he would have to change the order of the training he had done back at his own world, while ninjutsu was a good prospect, his control still sucked (well at least that's what he thought) and he'll rather get that up to par before starting with this part of the training; so that was out, for now. As far as genjutsu went it was still out of his league, he couldn't really train in this with his current control, not with any hope of succeeding at least, so that was also out for now.

That left taijutsu and weapon training, and both had the slight disadvantage that you needed a partner to obtain the best results… he was hoping he would get one, and with that in mind he started to design his training plan. Just as he was about to begin his preparations, he remembered his 'team' meeting and after some quick thinking he decided he didn't want to met with them just yet and resolved to send a clone with enough energy to take his place, and some back up in case it was needed and with that taken care of he started planning.

First, taijutsu and chakra control training

He couldn't afford not to keep training his control, luckily he didn't really needed any help in this area, at least for some time, since he already knew the exercises and what he needed to do to complete them, so it was just a matter of patience (which he lacked) and determination (which he had in spades) and probably many Shadow Clones in between but that was neither here nor there.

As for his taijutsu training, while keeping, and probably increasing, his physical routine was all fine and good, it didn't really changed the fact that he didn't have a constant training partner which he needed in order for his training to progress and for the moves to be incorporated in his instincts which was needed in an actual fight, he could only think of two people who would be willing to fill that position and was hoping they would be agreeable to do it, the green beast of Konoha and his student where definitely the more appropriated for the job, and what's more he used to count them as his friends and he hoped to do it again.

Second, weapons training (and more control)

For weapon training he was sure his old friend Tenten would help him, even if he didn't know her in this world, mainly because she didn't knew about the fox so he was hoping that that combined with her love of all things pointy would make her more than eager to help, and eventually he probably could convince Hayate, if he was lucky, to help him with the sword training, if not maybe Yugao would be willing.

It was curious to go around having to ask his old friends for help, but hopefully it would work for the best and they would go back to being his friends.

Third, ninjutsu training level I & II

Hopefully he would manage to get his control working to the point where he could start practicing some ninjutsu techniques, and refine his control even more, he knew most techniques at this level but he'll still rather have some additional help, however he was stump about who he could ask about it.

His first choices were Itachi, his once older brother and sensei, but he was either dead or in some seriously messed up shit (he really needed to investigate more about it) but either way he wasn't around to help him and his other choice, also his brother and current teacher, Kakashi, wasn't currently on his friendly list and would probably refuse either way (his clone was still gonna ask but he didn't have much hopes about it)

So that left him without a teacher in this area … thinking about it he resolved to request two of his favorite persons for help, maybe they weren't the best suited but they were the nicest and more fun he could think of…umm, ok, perhaps actually calling Anko Mitarashi 'nice' wasn't a very good idea (in particular if she heard it) or very honest, but she used to be some sort of bizarre older sister and more importantly a good friend and he wanted her back, if in the way he could get additional help that was just an extra bonus. His other choice Asuma Sarutobi was a good friend who always offered some sound advice and who just happened to have the same elemental affinity as himself, as a result they were his final choices in this field, for now anyway.

Fourth, Fuuinjutsu(sealing jutsu) and finding out what is going on

Ok so that stuff probably didn't need a place on the training schedule mainly because he couldn't or needed to practice them, but he was still going to be spending some time in them for different reasons.

His sealing techniques were completely intact and since they were basically knowledge he didn't need a special training to relearn them, and to actually improved them he either could experiment a little, or wait until he could access the things at his current level since there was no way a genin could get around studding advance sealing (especially if said genin had a demon fox sealed inside), and that was exactly where his concerns lay, because he doubted he could just waltz around practicing advance sealing and claimed it was all some sort of divine knowledge that had been given to him overnight, and at the way things were going people were probably going to assume that the stupid fox was trying to break free… 'maybe if I walk around with the right books, I could get away with the simpler stuff, and maybe somebody would take pity and actually teach me more stuff… well I don't see another way so that's my story and I will stick to it…for now at least"

And his last point for this stage of training was getting information: any information, he couldn't afford another day like the last couple had been, for one thing he wasn't too sure he would make it still sane, and since his brain needed some sort of stimulus to access the remaining memories and the original Naruto wasn't particularly observant he'll rather find all this stuff before it found him, however that still left the question of how to do it? Normally he would simply do some spying and snooping around, in a couple of secret and restricted places, until he found the information he wanted, but that was in a world where people actually were willing to give him information like how to read or how to use jutsus, which people in this world had already proved were no willing to do, and therefore he didn't want to even think what they would do to him if he was caught; so he went with the more subtle approach, which basically meant spying in some of the least secret places, wear a henge (or a transformation in his case) and wander around town collecting info and carefully find out all he could from his future (hopefully) friends, so in other words be observant and patient…'being subtle sucks, I wish there was a better way…'

So with that last part taken care of, he had a training plan he hoped would left him at a level where he could start practicing genjutsu, medjutsu and some other of his favorites moves, would help him to survive a real fight, at least into low chunnin level maybe more, and would help him to feel less alone in this world…maybe.

The only other problem was his 'team'; doing chores (also known as D-rank missions) sucked, doing them with a team that hated him and which he was starting to hate would be close to torture, actually doing that when he could pass his time training would be hell… 'so, that leaves me with the not too honest choice of having a clone do my job, but considering the choices and my, oh, so lovely, team I'm going to go with it, maybe show up once in a while and see for myself how much my new team sucks and avoid any suspicion from Kakashi might be a good idea, besides if I get all the memories of my clone it would be like being there…ugh, note to self: find a way of not getting a clone memories…and now it is time to start my plan…'

* * *

First he needed to find Gai and Lee, which seemed pretty easy considering that they not only wore neon green spandex suits, but also spent a huge amount of time screaming at the top of their voices about the powers of youth, so finding them should be easy… he hoped … In the end, it took him one hour to finally pinpoint their location because, apparently, they were training in one of the training fields further away from the town, and while that made perfect sense considering their personalities it made finding them a very difficult job, well now to the hard part.

He arrived near the training ground when he noticed that the pair of taijutsu specialists weren't alone, and apparently one of their teammates was actually Tenten which saved him a lot of future problems, 'maybe my luck is finally coming around' as he was approaching the genin team one of its members addressed him in a stuck up tone, which immediately made him want to throttle said member.

"State your propose or leave" the other genin demanded 'stock up Hyuga, you're the only one I wasn't even planning on visit, and I have no propose with you' Naruto replied mentally while on the outside he opted for the more mature and equally infuriating act of completely ignoring said Hyuga. So addressing the Konoha green beast, Naruto spoke.

"Maito Gai, my name is Naruto and I'm sorry to bother you but I've recently graduated of the academy and was wondering if your student could spare some time and spar with me for a while." Naruto spoke calmly in a respectful tone and was happy to see that, in spite of the instant recognition, there didn't seem to be any aversion directed at him 'maybe this would work out'

"Why would you choose us?" the Hyuga asked abruptly, and again Naruto resisted the urge to stick out his tongue at him.

"I'm not interested in you, is only Rock Lee that I wish to fight" Naruto replied pleasantly with, what he knew was, an annoying smile.

"YOSH! I'll be happy to help you to ignite your flames of youth or I shall run one hundred laps around town in less than an hour" Lee replied loudly and cheerfully in a familiar tone, that soothed Naruto's soul 'some things are always the same'

"LEE if you don't managed to do this I shall climb the Hokage Mountain without chakra and a rock tied at my back" Gai replied in an equally tone and then they proceeded with the usual hugging ritual which might have scarred Naruto for life if not for the fact that after witnessing it more than a hundred times he had somehow become immune to it 'One ability I'm grateful to have retained'

"So should we do it?" Naruto asked when the screaming and hugging was done

They went into their respective stances Lee using Goken and Naruto using his own style which he had labeled 'moonlight phantom' and basically specialized in speed and accuracy in his beginner's state, which was where Naruto was currently at.

They charged at each other with Lee attacking first with a punch directed at Naruto's head that he promptly avoid and retailed with a kick of his own, that Lee also avoided and tried to use for a counter attacked only for Naruto to doge an reappear from behind aiming a spinning kick at the other genin who in turn block the kick with a kick of his own which left them trapped at a strength match, that only ended when they separated from each other to plan the next step.

'Damn, there is still too much of a level difference, he hasn't even taken his weights and he's still better than me, I was planning on only using taijutsu but I'm gonna have to use something more if I want to be able to had a chance'

After that Naruto took the offensive, attacking with a roundhouse kick that Lee managed to block and using Naruto's momentum send him flying to a tree, however Naruto reacted on time and spun in the air using the tree to propel himself towards Lee, who had jumped to avoid the attack, however when his fist was about to connect Lee suddenly vanished and, before Naruto could react, kick him in his chin sending him to the air and leaving him open to Lee favorite technique.

However as Lee was about to use his wrappings to bound him, Naruto managed to do some quick hand seals and create a clone who changed places with him leaving him free to attack Lee as he completed his technique and jumped away before impact, taken by surprise Naruto's attack connected before Lee could respond sending him flying close to nearby tree which he used to alter his path and redirect himself to another tree in which he repeated the process gaining speed which each jump, on the other hand as soon as Naruto realized what Lee was planning he started the preparations for a technique of his own and push some chakra around him like some sort of shield and as Lee's attack was about to connect Naruto disappeared moving just enough to avoid the hit and repeated the process with the following attacks never moving more than necessary and waiting for an opening to be created, however, because of Naruto's lack of practice (in this body at least) and Lee's quantity of the same, when the opening was created Naruto couldn't move fast enough to connect his chakra reinforced punch and instead of hitting Lee's gut the punch was stopped by his leg, forcing Naruto to jump backwards in a handstand, but Lee used the attack to rotate and directed a kick, which, since Naruto still lacked speed, he couldn't dodge and was force to use his whole body to withstand the attack that still left him shaken up.

When the attacks finally stopped both Naruto and Lee were a little out of breath, however they couldn't help but smile at the fast paced fight, even if Lee was still stronger and faster than him, Naruto could use his chakra to keep up, leaving them on almost equal grounds (at least with the weights and the seals on)

"YOSH! Your flame of youth burns brightly my friend" Lee shouted exited

"Thanks, but you are still way better I'll have to work hard to catch up" Naruto replied happily without missing a beat, long used to Lee's behavior

"In that case my youthful friend why don't we work together in order to make our flames burn even hotter" Gai asked and Naruto agreed cheerfully as that had been exactly his plan since the beginning and was even gladder now that he knew that Lee and Gai where the same in all the dimensions, and Naruto spend the rest of the morning discussing his 'new' style with Lee and Gai while Tenten and the Hyuga (which he had recognized as Neji but still refused to acknowledge) were training nearby.

For the next couple of weeks, Naruto kept practicing his taijutsu with Lee's and Gai's help and his control on his own. All the while avoiding his team like the plague; at first Gai had wondered why Naruto wasn't training with his own team and Naruto had explained that currently his teacher was busy working with one of his students in particular and had suggested that the other two trained on their own for a while, which was completely true…in a way.

The first day that Naruto sent his clone in his place, his teacher didn't noticed anything wrong with his blond student and had kept working as usual, that day they were assigned a couple of D-rank chores and while they were doing them Naruto-clone noticed that not only was his sensei not helping or paying attention at all, he seem to be chatting with Sasuke-teme about something, giving the emo the perfect excuse for not doing any of the work, leaving only Sakura and himself to do it…okay, leaving him to do all the work while Sakura screech about something or other, and to make matters worse as soon as the day was over Kakashi-teme (the clones new nickname) sent him and Sakura home, while claiming he needed to speak with Sasuke, nevertheless the clone decided to stick around and asked his sensei about training hoping against hope that he would be happily surprised.

"Kakashi-sensei I was wondering if maybe you could help me with my training, you see I'm working on my…" however even before the clone could finish his question Kakashi-teme decided to interrupt.

"I'm sorry Naruto, you see I'm quite busy at the moment and I can't give you the necessary time, why don't you train on your own for now and when I have the time I would be happy to help you?" Kakashi answered giving him his usual eye smile which combined with his response only served to baffle Naruto, ha wasn't really interested in the excuse, like he said he had been expecting as much, however the answer seemed genuine and Kakashi didn't appeared to be concealing his dislike for Naruto, so what did it meant?

Afterwards the clones had spied the emo's training with kakashi for a while, trying to get some sort of reading from the guy without any luck. For the next couple of weeks Naruto (and his clones) had been wondering about Kakashi, he didn't behave like he hated him, it was more like he sometimes seemed to ignore him or just neglect him, but no matter what Naruto still couldn't make heads or tails of his teacher's behavior.

Either way after Naruto explained this arrangement to Gai he seemed to accepted it an never question his team dynamics again, on the other hand Naruto-clone had kept bothering Kakashi for training hoping to get some sort of clue of the man and at the same time to annoy him; which was something Naruto could be very good at, when he wanted to, and Neji Hyuga could attest to that, since for the last weeks Naruto had made his personal job to annoy Neji.

Given that Naruto spent most of his time either training with Lee and Gai or with Tenten, who had been more than willing to help him in his weapons training happy that someone shared one of her interests, he had in point of fact, at times, spend more time with team 9 than with his own team (all the time really, if you ignored the clone presence and resulting memories) which suited him just fine but seemed to terribly upset certain white haired Hyuga, something that made it all the more fun.

It wasn't that Naruto hated Neji, he had actually been one of his best friends in his own world, and Naruto had always treated him pretty much the same, however something wasn't right with Neji and as soon as Naruto knew the problem he would try to fix it, in the mid time he would try his very best to make him go crazy, after all what are friends for?

* * *

Alternatively today he was hoping to do something different for a change, yesterday he had managed the hovering leaf exercise while doing the tree walking exercise, which basically meant (for him) that he was ready to start his ninjutsu training and he was looking for one of the persons he hoped would be willing to help him in this field.

'Why must she insist on spending all her time in this stupid forest, it's almost impossible to find someone in this place…ugh…I swear she knows I'm here and it's enjoying watching me squirm' coincidentally as Naruto finished this thought some kunai and shuriken headed straight for his head, forcing him to change course or risk his neck (something he was disinclined to do).

"Nice job, gaki" said the unmistakable voice of Anko, and Naruto resisted the urge to gulp knowing that to show fear in front of a predator, or Anko but it was basically the same thing, was a great mistake "Not bad for a rookie, but what are you doing in the forest of death?"

"Looking for you sweetheart" Naruto answer with a foxy grin and prepared to dodge before she decided to kill him.

"Well you found me" Anko answered after throwing more weapons in his direction "now tell me what a kid, like you, wants with me?"

"You see Anko-neesan I've been doing some personal training and I think I'm ready for the next stage, but I need your help" replied Naruto while dodging all kinds of pointy things for the 'neesan' comment "also I thought you'll like the company" Naruto couldn't help but add.

As far as Naruto could see Anko was trapped between being annoyed and being interested, luckily Naruto knew how to tip the balance for his side "I even brought you some dango…but if you want I'll go and won't bother you anymore" Naruto said in a mock hurt voice 'I've miss driving her nuts, I hope we can become friends again'

And that was how Naruto made the acquaintance of one of the more dangerous and fun (in Naruto's opinion) kunoichi, after that, and some more bribing, Anko help him train some simple but effective techniques, and reinforced all his basic skills.

With all the combined training and the extra help he was getting Naruto started to settled into a routine, which was about to be disrupted by a particular banshee and one dangerous mission.


	6. Growing up

**A change in scenery**

**Chapter 5 – Growing up**

Naruto loved Ramen, that was probably true in any dimension, however the original Naruto had had some sort of unhealthy obsession with this particular food, that had taken Naruto ten minutes to explained when he decided to spend some time giving it a little thought, because even after getting a major influx of memories some things just weren't there and some other were too old or incomplete for him to understand, so even if the memories warned him that shopping for food or clothes (for Naruto) could let him in bankrupt, they didn't warned him that trying to eat in a restaurant, other than the ramen stand, could actually let him hurt or would had let him hurt had he not been faster and stronger than the owner.

He hadn't had to face that particular aspect until one particular day after some training with the two taijutsu demons, that had let him wondering if he would ever have any energy to move again (for about half an hour…but still), so after some careful consideration (about half minute thinking he didn't wanted to cook) he had decided to spend some money (he had thought it would probably be worth a small fortune, but he really didn't wanted to cook) and buy something simple in a restaurant…fat chance, the owner not only refused to let him in, but actually threatened him and tried to punch him, which really wasn't a smart thing to do to a guy who had spend the last four hours fighting dangerous opponents and sharpening his reflexes which basically let him in a constant alert mode, so his gut reaction was punch first ask question later which in turn let Naruto in the uncomfortable situation of having to explain, really nicely, all of this to the owner…okay, all he really did was scare the shit of the man, but he thought he was being nice.

Anyway after that particular experience the ramen obsession mystery was solved: the ramen stand was the only place where Naruto was welcomed, the ramen chef and his daughter were one of the very few people that didn't seemed to hate Naruto, the food was actually really nice and original-Naruto didn't had a clue about how to cook, it didn't take a genius to understand the love the original-Naruto developed for the food, however even if the current Naruto love ramen he actually knew how to cook, could transform in order to buy food and even to go into restaurants (if he was ever that desperate) and wasn't completely starved for affection, thus his ramen consuming rate was slowed down severely and his diet become much more balanced which actually not only helped him in his training, but was also making him grow at, what Naruto thought, was an alarming rate, 'I think maybe this is the fox's chakra doing, after all I'm sure people, even children, don't grow three inches in two months, but why didn't it helped the original-Naruto before now?...umm, maybe it did, I mean I'm pretty sure people aren't meant to live on only ramen…'

Nevertheless he still loved ramen and made sure to eat it in regular bases, so that explained why when he didn't showed up for six consecutive days in the ramen stand, the ramen chef and Ayame, who Naruto enjoyed to tease just to see her blush, were a little worried and when he did showed up on the seven day looking more like a zombie than a kid, they were even more worried, however when he explained his whereabouts for the last days they actually got a few laughs at his misfortune, which Naruto thought was really mean, after all he didn't asked to go with the 'snake-bitch' in a training trip…he wasn't that suicidal after all.

At the end of the day Naruto's and Anko's personalities were actually a nearly perfect match, and they both loved to spend time together even if neither would have ever admitted it at loud, it helped that they understood how it was to be scorned in your own home and that they were a nice mix between sadists and jokers, so yes their friendship worked, and Naruto was happy to admit that his psycho sister was back, and Anko for her part was enjoying spending time with someone around whom she could let her mask slip, therefore when she was send in a simple mission, investigate some rumors about a ghost in Bird Country, and was asked (more like ordered) to take a chunnin with her, she had managed to convinced them to let her take Naruto instead, without bothering to ask him for his opinion on the matter, and had proceeded to drag him to the mission (more like kidnapping him).

So Naruto was tortured for six whole days, not really…but close enough, managed to complete his first B-ranked mission, met the Daimyo of Bird country, Toki, who was posing as her brother to avenge his death and who turned up to be a very nice girl, helped Toki to revenge her family and spend some 'quality' time with his sister (although the last point was debatable) all in all a very productive, if not entirely fun week. However that week did give him a reprieve from some of the things he was uncovering in the village, some of which had made him wonder just how messed up was this world…

First was the whole Uchiha business, it hadn't been really difficult to get the basic information from the villagers, all it took was passing as a newcomer curious about that lonely child with black hair, action that produced the unexpected effect of having to hear all about the 'lovely last survivor from the noble Uchiha clan' (yeah right), but when the ranting finally ended they, very quietly, explained that said child's genius brother somehow managed to kill his whole clan one night…

'Sure, that's what happened, one man (no matter how powerful) kill dozens of people, most of whom were trained warriors, in only one night without any help and managed to escape, from a ninja village, without anyone noticing until it was too late to stop him…sure, that's a likely story', however no matter how much Naruto tried to find any proof of what really happened he always ended up empty handed, and even the shinobi didn't seem to know anything else worthwhile, he had asked Anko and Gai about it but both knew next to nothing about the whole affair, so left to his own imagination he had managed to come up with a few (in his opinion) more likely theories.

One idea he couldn't shake up, was that this was too very well planned to be a simple spur of the moment thing, which left him with the very likely conspiracy scenario, however that didn't explained where the hell was Itachi, if it was a set up or even an official order, there didn't seem to be a reason why Itachi had decided to take the blame, especially when the only witness was a very traumatized 6 year old kid, who had just watch his parents murdered and who didn't have more than a little (if any) ninja training, actually that part didn't made sense either way, even if he was guilty nobody was going to take the word of Sasuke over the word of his prodigy brother, and why would anybody be that interested in eliminate the Uchiha clan? 'I mean sure they were powerful, but so are the Hyuga and even some of the minor clans, so why the Uchihas?'

Additionally Naruto had thought that maybe this and the Kyubbi incident were related, after all those two things seemed to be the mayor differences with his own world, but he didn't have the resources to investigate that … yet, and lastly he couldn't fathom who were Itachi's accomplices 'there is no way, that even if he did kill his clan for resons unknown he did it alone, he was powerful but not that powerful'

However all this stuff were only theories and since he couldn't use his full powers or get access to more information he didn't have a way to do more than a few educated guesses, and he wasn't having any luck trying to find his once brother, now apparent criminal, and hear his side of the story, so he had to go back to his original plan: waiting…which sucked.

That, coupled with other interesting info he had collected from the villagers and even some shinobis, like the current conditions of the Hyuga clan, which served to explain Neji and Hinata's personalities changes but didn't really help him to figure out how to help them, and the fact that neither of the sannin where in town or even that active (except Orochimaru, but Naruto actually would had rather he wasn't active at all), left Naruto feeling quite home sick and more than a little worried about what he had to do to help his once (and hopefully future) friends.

So for Naruto the first couple of months after becoming a full fledge shinobi were not only quite informative and interesting, but combined with his constant training at the hands of his torturers … I mean teachers, were actually awfully productive, taking him from not being able to use a simple bunshin or throw a proper punch (after the academy graduation) or from using only basic D-rank and some (very few) C-rank moves, none of which were nearly close to being mastered, and having to use massive amounts of chakra to uphold a fight with a weight wearing Lee (after his personal training) to having a diverse and useful array of techniques, even if most were still pretty low level, some of which were close to being mastered, managing to keep up to a full speed and full strength Lee (without opening the gates) having to use only a little chakra, gaining (or regaining) accuracy and precision in the use of basic weapons, developing some strong fighting instincts and reflexes (you didn't have any other choice when you were constantly dodging punches (Gai) and weapons (Anko)) and in essence becoming a very good genin or even an average chunnin.

Not that any of his 'team' or any other member of the village knew much of this, of course it was difficult to miss all the changes (although his team somehow managed it), and the villagers were bound to notice some of the more 'physical' changes and some of the shinobis, like Iruka knew he was improving his ninja skills, however he was a new genin so everyone assumed this was Kakashi's job and left the matter rest (except for some girls who were wondering if he was, after all, a valuable catch and were starting a Naruto fan club), however his 'team' either was blind or more self involved than he had assumed at first glance; of course Kakashi noticed the more obvious changes, he was a jounin after all, but, in keeping with his 'let's-pretend-we-barely-know-each-other' routine (that Naruto still couldn't figured out), he seemed to decide it was simply a normal growth spur and didn't bother to look close enough to see the other changes; but his teammates didn't seem to see any of the changes except maybe to point out that he still wasn't 'cool' enough or strong enough 'cool enough to what? Strong compare to whom? I swear they live in separate worlds with different rules than the rest of us…*sigh*… at least I don't have to waste my time thinking believable excuses.'

Also, the people who actually knew what was going on didn't bother to correct anyone; Gai and his team, because they didn't see any particular point to doing it and Anko, because she already knew the truth (about Naruto being ignored by his team) and was having too much fun watching the village deceived themselves without anyone's help. But in spite of all that Naruto was having fun and giving a good use to his time, too bad the same could not be said for the other members of team seven.

As far as Naruto, or his clones to be more precise, seeing as Naruto had only bother to go in person two or three times since the team's creation, anyhow, as far as they could tell the only one who Kakashi was training was Sasuke, and even though Naruto wasn't really very worried for his own sake (even if he was a little hurt and angry) because he still had great teachers and partners, even if none of them were on his team, he was really worried about his female teammate.

Now we had established that Naruto didn't know, was interested on knowing or even liked Sakura, however she was a member of his team (dysfunctional though it may be) and as a jounin (in his head anyway) he couldn't help but worry about her, after all without Kakashi training her, without any sort of motivation other than being near 'Sasuke-kun' and a distorted idea of the world, she was more likely to end up kill in the first opportunity than to be any real help.

Nevertheless there was nothing Naruto could do for her, on the first place convincing her to take his help was bound to be more trouble than what it was worth, on the second place he didn't have the time or the disposition to deal with her training on top of his own and lastly and more important he couldn't force her to train, if she didn't wanted to learn and grow she wouldn't and that was a fact of life; so even if he was worried he could only watch as she became more and more useless… as a kunoichi at least. 'If I was the teacher I would either force her to shape up or to drop from the program, but that is Kakashi's job and like it or not there isn't much I can do, other than make sure to protect her in an actual fight … I honestly hope is enough … I may not like her, but that doesn't mean I want her to get hurt (much)'

And as Sasuke's training went he had spied on most of it, or his clones had at any rate, and he was far for impress. People in this dimension might actually think that Sasuke was some sort of prodigy; which he really wasn't he was talented, that much Naruto was willing to admit, but far from true prodigies like Itachi or even Kakashi; but even if he was really a true prodigy, being a prodigy only means you can learn stuff in a fraction of the time other people do, and while that is good and useful it doesn't mean that you don't have to put the hours or do the job, sure you have some advantages but if someone is willing to work their asses of (like Lee) and you are happy to sit around and wait for divine illumination (like Sasuke) they are bound to catch up and surpass you; being a prodigy only means that if you try to run to the goal you do it faster than the others, but it isn't a magical portal to the finish line…

However someone forgot to explain all this to a certain black haired Uchiha, who seemed to assume that due to his last name he had already won most fights and that due to his status as a 'genius' he was bound to win the others and only wanted a few shortcuts to a power he was going to use to defeat his brother, and last surviving family, and probably drift without a propose for the rest of his life… 'Umm, I'm almost starting to fill pity for him…and Kakashi isn't helping one bit…ugh, I feel like hitting something, the whatever-it was to be exact'

Naruto perhaps didn't understand why Kakashi treated him like he did, but you don't have to be a rocket scientific to realize that Kakashi saw himself in Sasuke and was trying to help him in his own way, however he was a far way from being right about the resemblance and from truly helping.

For starters Kakashi was a true genius and as such had been used to a difficult training from an early age, so while at twelve Kakashi knew all the basics and was ready to go into the next level…Sasuke was far from ready, but more than willing, to do the same; resulting in him learning stuff he couldn't comprehend, much least master and would probably led him to a worse outcome that if he actually took the time to learn the bases.

And there was also the fact that Kakashi was seriously underestimating the level of Sasuke's obsession; he wouldn't call it hate, Naruto knew hate and what Sasuke seemed to feel was more close to a fixation and a hidden rage than to any real hate, but either way Kakashi was overestimating Sasuke while underestimating his feelings and reinforcing the I'm better than you attitude … 'So if Sasuke was messed up going in, how is he going to be going out?... yeah, pity is the right feeling'

Also, while this was going on in the background, the team was happily doing D-ranked chores… ok, Naruto was happily doing D-ranked chores…Okay, the clones were happily doing D-ranked chores, because, since no one else from his team usually bothered to help, Naruto sent 4 or 5 clones to do the missions, *cough*chores*cough*, (and 5 more to spy) and the clones had quickly figured out ways to keep themselves occupied: training while working, playing games among themselves and, if all else failed, annoy the rest of team seven.

So, while Naruto may never be a fan of D-chores, he wasn't really all that annoyed by them which surprised all that knew him (mainly the Old man Hokage and Iruka) however the rest of his team that did less, complained more and had much less imagination was becoming quite sick of the chores, so it was only matter of time before one of them exploded.

* * *

It miraculously happened on one of the few times while Naruto was in real body and soul with his team, that the pink banshee finally got fed up with the missions.

They had just finished capturing certain cat-like demon that goes by the name of Tora and disguises himself as the daimyo's wife's pet, something that Naruto always thought was great fun since he and Tora always made a game out of the chase, much to his team's annoyance who didn't seemed to share his views, but whatever.

"Now team #7 your next duty is babysitting an elder's grandson or …"

"NO, NO, NO!!!" the banshee screams interrupted Naruto's daydreaming who had been wondering how his little brother Kon was doing, since he made an habit of sending at least one clone to play with him and help him training every day, hey, the way he saw it playing with Kon was more productive than spending all his day with his so called 'team' so he might as well do that too, but back to the banshee…I mean Sakura "Find us a better mission, Sasuke-kun strength is being wasted in this stupid missions" Sakura concluded her heartfelt rant and Naruto resisted the urge to burst out laughing, which wasn't helped by Sasuke's expression that screamed 'I agree 100%'

And that was Iruka's clue to start in one of his lectures and Naruto's cue to go back to his musings 'God, should I be grateful or upset that I was here to witness Sakura's stupidity, I mean is like she wants to be hurt… in any case, why does she wants a more dangerous mission when she can even do her current ones? And what is worse does she actually expects the emo to protect her, I wonder what color is the sky in her world?...probably pink' By the time Naruto was done with this profound line of thought he found himself the center of attention from everyone in the room, apparently someone actually remembered he was there and asked him something 'Now if I only knew what it was … I really need to stop spacing out … but what is a guy supposed to do…' "Uh? what was the question again" Naruto finally said in a happy go lucky tone, completely void of any concerns or worries 'yeah, being me rocks sometimes, I can get away with anything'

"I asked you if you also wanted a higher ranked mission, Naruto." The Old man answer in his usual patient voice 'Now what I'm supposed to answer? … I can't believe he is even considering giving us a higher ranked mission … he must be going senile … ugh, whatever…' "Yeah sure whatever" 'there, nobody can blame me for this mess'

Everyone seemed a little shocked that he didn't look like he cared much about his next mission but the Hokage appeared to reach some sort of conclusion because the next thing he said was that they would be escorting someone and called and old man, that for some reason was waiting just outside the door, then the old man #2 proceeded to insult them by calling them a bunch of brats, to which Naruto wholeheartedly agreed and as such didn't felt the need to say anything until Kakashi told them to meet them at the gates in the next half hour and then he just went on his own way without sparing his teammates a second thought.

Once Naruto reached his apartment he create a dozen clones with enough chakra to last a couple weeks and send them on different missions: two of them disguised themselves as common villagers and headed to scout the city, other two helped the original to pack (or seal) what he was taking with him on the mission, while another couple worked on the security seals of the apartment and the rest went their own ways to inform his friends of his departure, all the clones were going to stick around until they ran out of energy, he came back or something important happened and would spend their time until then spying, spending time with his friends or simply hanging around his home.

Half hour later all team seven, including their sensei and the real Naruto, were ready to begin their first official C-ranked mission, Sasuke and Sakura were really excited even if the latter tried not to let it show, Kakashi was already immersed on a certain orange book and didn't seemed to care either way, their client, Tazuna, was sweating bullets while trying to act as if he wasn't scared out of his mind and Naruto was…being Naruto and thinking of some random thing while pretending not to notice their client strange behavior 'After all if he's spending all that energy into keeping up his act, why should I ruin it?...besides I'm bored'

They were walking in a dirt road when the first sign of trouble showed up in the form of a puddle 'That is so lame, I mean there hasn't rain in days and for some strange reason there is a lonely puddle in the middle of the road…a rookie could spot that…ugh…maybe not' Naruto resisted the urged to bang his head against a tree, do a face fault and burst into tears, his team sucked, plain and simple…'Anyway, let's dance'

When the enemies appeared two of them 'killed' Kakashi with some sort of chain while the other two went after Naruto, 'why is it always me?' When the two first guys finished with Kakashi they went after Sakura assuming, rightly, that she was the weaker of the team and Sakura completely paralyzed by fear didn't even tried to move out of the way, luckily Sasuke, who was feeling left out, somehow managed to use a kunai to pin their chain to a tree effectively cutting out any possible movements, however whatever god had been helping him suddenly quit, because just after that awesome move he proceed to try to kick them, not causing much damage but effectively freeing them, and the bandits, not being complete idiots, use that opportunity and went back to attacking Sakura, who was still in shock, and would have probably ended up kill if not for Kakashi who decided to return to the land of the living and save his two students by defeating the enemies with a single hit, however just at that moment he seemed to remember not only his other student but also their client and just as he was about to run to help he caught sight of Naruto and Tazuna standing calmly watching the other two enemies unconscious at Naruto's feet

* * *

With Naruto…

When everyone's attention, except for Tazuna's and his own, went to the other fight; Naruto noticed, while cursing the deity that he was sure was playing with him, that his opponents were stronger and actually seemed smarter than the other two, so thinking quickly he made a couple of clones that surrounded Tazuna and focused all his attention in his current enemies, they, unlike the other two, seemed to be different types of fighters: one was big and apparently strong, while the other was slim but appeared to have more chakra, if they acted together they could be troublesome, so he couldn't hide his abilities without risking his safety and the client, now, Naruto wasn't afraid of dying but he wasn't about to lose his life just to keep his secrets (or at least some of them), he would deal with the rest as soon as his life was no longer in the line, so keeping nothing back he went to the fight.

The first opponent that reach him seemed to be the stronger of the two but in spite of his size he was quite fast, nevertheless Naruto was ready and, using his chakra as a shield to reduce not only the strength of any attack that reach him but also as a barrier to reduce the wind resistance allowing him to move faster than usual, and controlling his movements in order to move just a couple of paces to the side, he avoided the deadly punch, however no sooner was he safe from the terrific punch that he heard a scream of Suiton: Mizurappa (Water Style: Chaos Wave) and was forced to evade the oncoming blast by backing up a few steps, however that appeared to be only a distraction when the next technique his opponent used was Suiton: Suiryuuben (Water Style: Water Dragon Whip) which produce a sphere that send whips of water, which sought him out trying to impale him, and forced Naruto to evade using his special fast movements and at the same time created an opening for the other guy, which seemed to be the plan from the start.

However Naruto was already getting tired of this and decided to change for the offensive and using and overpowered Fuuton: Sensougouheki (Wind Style: Rumbleing wind wall), that produced a spinning wind wall, render both attacks useless and send his physical attacking opponent to the ground and, using the momentary distraction, he conjured a whirlwind of slicing wind with Fuuton: Kamaitachi for the jutsu using enemy and finally using a mid powered Raiton: Jibashi (Lightning Style: Electromagnetic Murder) he incapacitated the remaining enemy.

'Fun way to test my new learned jutsus, let's see who we have here…umm, they seem to come from hidden mist, figures with all the water-type attacks…well now let's fake innocence'

While all this was going on, the clones guarding Tazuna had not only managed to get him to explain the whole story; while he was apparently in shock from seeing a kid fighting like that, he explained all about the pig-like man named Gato who wanted to take over wave and destroyed the people's homes in the process, and the subsequent fact that this was more like a B-rank mission or probably an A one depending on the enemy; but had also, by the use of subtle treats and a promise to make the rest think about keeping up with the mission, convinced Tazuna to tell the others that he only used clones and taijutsu to defeat his opponents.

'If they buy that one, I'll try to convince them that I'm really a shinagami that ended in this world for mistake…Oh My God!, they actually bought it, and they call themselves ninjas when they are willing to believe anything you tell them without questioning, is almost like dealing with toddlers, and the Old man actually send us in a dangerous mission, why?...note to self: next time you're bored ask Anko for help, is actually less dangerous (slightly)'

While Naruto was daydreaming, the rest of the team caught up on recent events and before Sakura could actually start with her self-doubts and demanded that they went back to the village he decided to interrupt with an inspiring, if a little dumb speech, after all it had been a while since he did something 'stupid', so canalizing the original Naruto.

"We can't go back, this people need someone to help them and is our job as Konoha ninjas to complete this mission, not only for their sakes but also to prove our worth, we can go back to our word as ninjas" Naruto exclaimed in a passion filled voice while mentally clapping himself in the back.

"Na, I guess we could go on if you are all sure" Kakashi replied in his usual bored tone, with Sasuke quickly agreeing and Sakura, not wanting to be seen as a coward especially in front of her Sasuke-kun, reluctantly agreeing too.

And so they decided to go on, with Sakura nervously glancing around and glued close to Sasuke, her new found hero, Sasuke looking around worriedly, while throwing Naruto dirty glances for wining his fight without anyone's help (apparently he was the only one allowed to do that), Kakashi actually paying attention to something different than his book for a change, Tazuna sticking to Naruto like his new found best friend and looking considerably more relieved and Naruto lost in his plans for future training and a certain cape he was starting to miss…


	7. Getting real

**A/N: **Sorry for the small delay I had tests in the university this week and was really short on time, anyway thanks for the reviews and here is the next chapter, there are some fighting scenes which gave me a little problems so I hope you like them.

**A change in scenery**

**Chapter 6 – Getting real**

Walking at civilian pace was boring, or at least that was Naruto's opinion, not that the rest of his team seemed to think so, whenever he suggested that they seeped up, he was rudely turned down, apparently they were already moving fast enough 'whatever', Naruto really wasn't all that bothered by the speed, but he was bored, and not finding anything better to do, with Kakashi actually paying attention for a change, denying him the possibility to do some training, he decided that a good way to spend some time would be to annoy his team and as such he had been asking all type of questions: "can we go a little faster?", "can we stop to eat?", "do they sell ramen at wave country?", "How is the current score against Gai-sensei, Kakashi-sensei?", "How do you see where you're going while you read a book?" "Do you take your mask while you're bathing?"…. well, you get the idea, however all his question served the propose of filling some information on his client without drawing to much attention; his team, after a while, started to ignore him and assumed he was asking Tazuna the same kind of question they had been submitted to, however he actually found out some interesting stuff, like the fact the old man lived with his daughter and grandchild in an old Inn, and that the people at wave were apparently going through some extremely hard times and what was worse they had apparently given up the fight, the old man even told him the story of the 'hero of wave', who was something of a surrogate father to Inari (Tazuna's grandchild), and how after his death the whole town, and specially Inari, had lost all hope, and while he was listening to all of this the only one who appeared to understand his intentions was Tazuna 'Maybe is like how illusions work, they expect to see something and, as long as you don't do anything too obvious, they convince themselves that what they are seeing is real, and since the old man had different expectations he wasn't fooled by my acting … umm, this actually makes sense, however it isn't doing much in the do something entertaining department…oh, wait someone is following us…and nobody has noticed it…let's see how long it takes them'

Kakashi had apparently noticed something wrong, however having spend two months with nothing but an easy routine had dulled his senses to a point where he wasn't sure of where was their follower and was forced to wait for the attacker to make the first move, Tazuna, having been warned previously by Naruto using a signal they had discussed while chatting, was walking as close as possible to Naruto and the other two members of team seven were blissfully ignorant of the current danger, and were, as a result, completely taken by surprised when Kakashi and Naruto yelled in near perfect synchrony "GET DOWN!!"

Naruto, being ready and closer to Tazuna, tackled him into the ground while covering him with his body, at the same time creating a couple of clones which hid in the forest waiting for an opportunity to act, Kakashi for his part push Sakura out of the way while Sasuke ducked on his own, either way they all managed to avoid the giant sword that passed spinning over their heads seconds later, and that was where Naruto stop thinking about being bored or keeping an act, because he immediately recognized the man who was standing on top of the sword, that was lodged in a nearby tree, 'oh, come on, it's impossible to have this kind of luck, unless you are Tsunade, we are a genin team with almost no training and on our first C-ranked mission, which ended up being an A-ranked mission, we are forced to fight one missing A-ranked ninja… I now know for a fact that someone up there has it in for me' however while he might had been cursing fate in his head, on the outside long time ingrained responses from his brain and developing instincts form his body were already calculating possible escaping chances, fighting chances, surviving chances and his body was already assuming a protective position in front of Tazuna, while his clones were working on replacing the old man with a transformed clone reducing any real danger for the client and hopefully opening a chance for victory, and this time he didn't miss a word exchange between their teacher and current enemy or lost sight for one second of any of his teammates, if someone would have watch closely at Naruto during this time, like certain fake hunter-nin was doing, they would have probably seen a mix between a predator watching his pray and a parent protecting his kids, basically he was ready to attack or defend as was needed and the more impressing part was that all this was mostly done as an automatic response, however luckily or unluckily for Naruto only two people noticed his reactions and one wasn't train to understand them (although even he was impress) while the other wasn't in a position to act on said information, so the large part of the assembled ninjas remained ignorant of Naruto's real strength.

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Naruto watched as Kakashi uncovered his sharingan and ordered them to protect the client while explaining his eyes abilities, and used the others distraction to signal his clones to take the opportunity and replaced Tazuna without anyone being the wiser, and then assumed a defensive position in front of the Tazuna-clone just in time for Zabuza to use the Kirigakure No Jutsu (Hidden Mist Jutsu) to cover the area in a thick mist that limited a normal person sight, not to say Naruto wasn't affected, however one of the first things he had noticed when he arrived in this new world was the sharpening of his senses and, while he hadn't spend much time working on this, with the help of Anko and Gai he had already learnt to use them to some extent and could use them in a fight, so while the mist reduced his range of vision it didn't really let him nearly blind like it did the rest of his team so he could still see Zabuza getting ready to attack, Naruto freely admitted in spite of himself that he was impressed by Zabuza's intimidation tactics, 'I mean naming all the usual vital points in a normal person is a cool way to freak your opponent, and when your opponent are a bunch of inexperienced genin that amount of killing intent is bound to make them edgy' but even if he was impress he wasn't really affected, after all, being once a Jounin, he was used to fight strong opponents on usual bases, however he noticed that the same wasn't true for the rest of his team, with Sakura looking ready to bolt in the first opportunity and Sasuke giving the impression of being close to taking his own life, so he decided to intervene before they went over the edge, and knowing his usual defensive mechanisms, mainly reassuring them, wouldn't work since they didn't trust him he went with using some intimidation of his own, so giving his favorite foxy grin he answer back in a eerily calm voice

"Why don't you choose your favorite one, is not like you're actually going to manage to touch me…much less injure me" Ok, so he wasn't being honest, he knew without a doubt that his chances of winning a one on one fight were close to none, he might be stronger and have more experience that what everyone thought but he was barely at chunnin level and there was no way he could take a fight with an A-ranked ninja, but no matter how different this Kakashi was to the one he knew, he was still a jounin, and a great one from what he had heard, so they weren't completely doomed, and he refused to admit at loud that he didn't thought they could win, besides if you can beat them, freak them out…

But no matter how untruth were his words they served to calm the new genin a little and coupled with Kakashi reassurances, that Naruto personally thought weren't very comforting 'How is he supposed to protect us if he dies? And how is that going to make us feel better?' but whatever, to each his own, they managed to make the fear of the rookie ninjas recede enough so they could be of some use, in theory. However Zabuza wasn't about to sit around and let them catch their breath, so he used what he thought was a moment of distraction to appear in the middle of the genin, however no sooner had he showed up that he was forced to evade heaps of kunai heading his way and a kick to the side of his neck, all courtesy of our favorite blond ninja, only to be stabbed in the back by Kakashi, luckily for him he had send a water clone and used the opening to attack Kakashi only for him to melt in water and the real Kakashi to appear behind Zabuza holding a kunai to his neck, which would had been great if that was the actual real Zabuza and not only another clone that also melted and for the last time the real Zabuza tried to attack Kakashi from behind and, seeing as this was the real one, Kakashi was forced to dodge the attack and tried to attack Zabuza only for him to get knock out in the nearby lake, falling directly into Zabuza's trap: using a jutsu to trap him, making it impossible for him to keep fighting and then send a clone to attack the genin

Naruto, while happy to realize that Kakashi was actually quiet good in what he did, also noticed that he seemed out of shape which was proved when he ended up captured by his enemy, it wasn't that his enemy was stronger per say, it was that Kakashi didn't seem to be in the correct frame of mind, he wasn't alert enough and that was the biggest problem, however Naruto knew Kakashi was the only one capable of dealing with Zabuza in a one of one fight, so with him captured their chances of leaving alive become close to zero … 'so first let's free him'…

A water clone might have only one-tenth of the caster's original power, but the ten percent of an A-ranked missing-nin power isn't nothing to scuff about, so Naruto wasn't about to run blindly into a one on one match…to bad Zabuza had other plans and decided to go after him leaving him without any other choice that to take him heads on, at least until he could find a way to free Kakashi… at first Zabuza started to spill stuff about acting like a real ninja and not being one until you we're listed in the bingo book, which Naruto kind of agreed after all people like Sakura are more like trained civilians than real ninjas, however there are people like Lee and even Neji that deserved the title so it's more a matter of personal circumstances than a simple matter of general level, but he still wasn't going to draw attention to himself by trying to explain this until he figure out a plan, however Zabuza wasn't on a waiting mood and had already decided to attack him, so before Naruto had the chance to think of a set up, he was forced to intercept a kick, that would have send him flying had he not grown use to this type of attacks thanks to certain green-spandex wearing ninjas, not having much choices and already used to counterattacks Naruto used the leg as leverage to direct a kick to the clone's face however the clone lowered his body and tried to throw Naruto away forcing him to let go and land behind the clone, however the clone used the spinning motion to try an attack with his sword leaving Naruto just enough time to use a clone to replace himself and create a couple more that positioned themselves around Zabuza-clone and used Fuuton: Goukuuhou (Wind Style: Great Air Cannon) to distract him while another one tried a direct attack, however Zabuza-clone managed to evade the jutsu's and push the attacking clone away and destroy him

"So you still think I'm playing ninja?" Naruto asked hopping to buy some time to regroup after the consecutive attacks

"I'll have to admit that you're not completely useless for a brat, however you're still a long way from where I was at your age" 'well I'm still a long way from where I used to be' thought Naruto and then Zabuza went on with his story about how he murdered his whole graduating class earning himself the title of the devil of the hidden mist 'umm, cool nickname but I already knew it' however what Zabuza didn't know was that he was really talking to a clone while the real Naruto was busy preparing a plan to hopefully free Kakashi and avoid being killed.

So while Zabuza was talking, Naruto was creating a couple (dozens) of clones that he was going to use, not to attack the Zabuza-clone but the real one, the reasons for this were simple, Naruto knew that normally attacking Zabuza would lead him nowhere, however his objective wasn't defeating Zabuza but force him to move and release his jutsu, so he send his clones underwater to attack using Fuuton: Goukuuhou (Wind Style: Great Air Cannon) while he prepared the Suiton: Suishouu Gorugan (Water Style: Strong Current Torrential Rain), that was one of his strongest current attacks and basically was a weaker version of the water dragon, the strength of the united attacks was enough to force, a surprised, Zabuza to move out of his position effectively freeing Kakashi, however Zabuza didn't stay surprised for long and immediately used his sword to attack the real Naruto, that had just showed up near Zabuza and was standing in the water in order to effectively use his jutsu, nevertheless Naruto managed to react in time and used Fuuton: Sensougouheki (Wind Style: Rumbling wind wall) to defend himself and while it wasn't enough to push Zabuza back it gave Naruto enough time to move out of the way and go underwater and Kakashi time to rejoin the fight, after that the attention went back to Kakashi and become a ninjutsu battle that, almost cause Naruto to drown and, luckily Kakashi won, in part thanks to the sharingan and his copying and illusion abilities, however just as Kakashi was about to finish his opponent, Zabuza was hit by a couple of senbon needles to his neck that were fired by, what appeared to be, a hunter-nin from the hidden mist and a boy not much older than Naruto himself, now Naruto being raised as a prodigy wasn't at all surprised by the mist ninja age on the other hand his instincts were screaming that something was wrong and that forced him to stay alert and ready for danger, it didn't helped that Naruto could feel the other ninja's eyes on him while he moved to take Zabuza's body, nevertheless Naruto had no intention to force a confrontation even if it was a set up, because even if Zabuza was injured, Kakashi was nearly out of energy as far as Naruto could tell, and Naruto himself had used a considerable amount of energy while this hunter-nin seemed to be in near perfect condition (and Naruto wasn't bothering to count his alleged teammates) so if a fight broke out the advantage would be on the masked ninja's side, thus Naruto just stay alert while allowing the hunter-nin to take Zabuza's _body _'Now I know for sure he is an enemy, after all he should have destroyed the body, and again nobody else seemed to have notice anything wrong…this is so depressing and not a little scary…well at least for now is over'

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While the fight had been going on Naruto's reactions had completely reverted to a battle mode in which everything not immediately related to the fight or sensed as a danger was completely ignored, and as such he hadn't given any thought to his teammates or they reactions to the abilities he was showing, or had even considered for a second to hide most of what he could do, so he had missed the complete surprised expressions on their faces when he had reacted to the first appearance of Zabuza, or their shock when he had challenged him, or they complete bewilderment when he had engaged him in combat; he had also never noticed Kakashi's surprise to see, who he thought was only the dead last of the class fight on a level not even the rookie of the year was close to accomplish. Conversely now that the fight was over it was hard to ignore the stares he was receiving from the rest of his team.

'I'm so doomed…quickly think of something, anything to explain how you went for being a barely-passing-as-a-ninja to a fighting-in-jounin-level-fight in only two months…ugh, I don't think there is much I could say … well I'll just fake innocence, it has worked so far, so I might as well give it a shot…'

"Hey, Kakashi-sensei that was amazing, that guy was really powerful I believed for sure we were going to die, it seems your stronger than I thought" Naruto said in his typical tone, acting to the world like he hadn't just been involved in a live or death battle, however when Kakashi tried to answer he fell to the floor in a dead faint 'maybe I have some luck after all, or someone out there is playing with me…whatever, I'm not about to go looking a gift horse in the mouth' so Naruto, after making sure Kakashi was just exhausted, replace the real Tazuna back and created a couple of clones to help him take Kakashi to Tazuna's house and happily went on his way, ignoring the rest of his team and keeping a look out for any other problems that could come their way.

When they finally reached Tazuna's house Naruto was already completely exhausted and about ready to crash on the first available surface, and his team look like they were ready to die from curiosity or jealousy, ha wasn't really all that sure, but in his priority list his rest was way above his teammates worries, well not as a general rule but for this particular team, so when they arrived at the old Inn, Naruto was charming and lovely with his hosts, immediately earning Tsunami's, Tazuna's daughter, heart and that, mixed with his already earned respect from Tazuna himself, served to make him the number one favorite guest, and allowed him to retreat to an empty bedroom without much explaining while the rest of his team took care of their sensei

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It had been close to mid afternoon when they arrived at Tazuna's house and it was close to sunrise the next day when Naruto woke up again, feeling completely fresh and rested 'One of the multiple advantages of hosting your own personal demon, you can rest for one night and recover completely from what it would take other people weeks to pull through, and on that subject, judging by what I saw yesterday, it's going to be close to a week for Kakashi to recover enough to move around normally, and, unless I'm way off, it's going to be at least two weeks for Zabuza to be strong enough to make another appearance, that leaves us only a week to train…well that leaves my teammates a week to train, and that it's nowhere close to adequate, it will be better if I could, at least, give them some tips, but I doubt even seeing me fight or the different level of our opponents it's going to be sufficient to open their eyes and convince them to take my advice…on that note I really need an excuse…umm, or maybe not? After all it was only harsh training that brought me to my current level and there are people who could attest to that, still I rather not mention them if I don't have to, and if I play my cards right maybe I won't have to…yeah, that should work'

A couple of hours later Tsunami went down to the kitchen and found Naruto working on making breakfast with expert ease and, after Naruto convinced her to allow him to help, she joined him chatting happily about this and the other, all inadvertently cementing her initial opinion on what a great kid Naruto was, when they finished cooking, the sat at the table eating in friendly company until they were joined by a certain black haired kid, the one without the superiority complex

"Oh, Inari say hello to our other guest, he was resting when you arrived yesterday and grandpa said he was the one that made sure to protect him so be nice to him" Tsunami said when she noticed the kid

"But mom, I already told you yesterday they're all going to die" Inari said in a confident tone people who know little or much of the world usually use, while the original-Naruto would have freak out by that point, the current Naruto already knew Inari's story, and many similar stories for that matter, so instead of being mad he simply give Inari a sad smile, that oddly enough fit in perfectly in his usual smiling face, and answer back without a hint of anger

"Everybody dies someday Inari, the only thing we can do is make sure that when our time comes it counts for something" Inari seemed shocked by this answer and opted to leave the room without eating, so Naruto decided to apologize for upsetting him, but for some reason Tsunami just kept looking at him in a longing and proud way and just said it might be for the best that he did it, so, not bothering with trying to unveil the mysteries of a woman's mind, Naruto went to put his plan in action first he created a couple dozens of clones, whose main job was to help in the bridge construction and guarding the workers, however he didn't want them to look the same, so with a sudden burst of inspiration and a foxy grin, he had them transformed and asked them to head with Tazuna to the bridge, with that taking care off he left a couple of clones, to help him keep an eye on the house and inform him the minute Kakashi woke up, and moved to the forest to do a little work out while waiting for his sensei to recover a little

It was close to noon when one of his clones finally notified him that Kakashi had woke up so Naruto, deciding his teacher was bound to be suspicious and hoping to avoid a confrontation, opted to head to the house and confront his teacher in person.

By the time he arrived his teacher was explaining who was the hunter-nin and what were his functions, all the time seemingly oblivious to the fact that the ninja they had seen before wasn't really a hunter-nin 'Come on, your basically giving yourself the answers, at least you seem to know your missing something…maybe I should give you a little clue…'

"So, Zabuza's body is being destroyed by that hunter-nin?" Naruto said in an innocent voice, scaring the shit out of all that hadn't noticed his arrival…so basically everyone but Kakashi.

'And he finally seems to have guess it…honestly what was the old man Hokage thinking sending us in anything that could somehow resemble a more difficult task than chasing Tora, is like he's trying to get rid of us…Nah, maybe he's just overestimating us' Again while Naruto was busy lost in his ever distracting train of thoughts, Kakashi was explaining , to those that were actually paying attention, how Zabuza was probably still alive since the hunter-nin didn't dispose the body in the moment he was killed and his weapon was one that could put someone on a momentary death, of course he did it in a much more dramatic way, but the gist were the same, and by some strange miracle Naruto actually manage to tune in when he started to explain that they need it to prepare, which meant actually training

"Huh? Training?...But how are we supposed to fight against a Ninja you couldn't even defeat?" Sakura asked apparently just having realized that being a ninja was an actual dangerous, life and death, profession

"Sakura, you guys were the ones that help me in the fight, you are already growing" Kakashi replied with his usual eye smile, although he didn't sound too sure of what he was saying (to Naruto at least) however the moment he finish he opened his eyes and gave a very different expression, one that spoke of suspicion, while looking directly at Naruto "Especially Naruto" nevertheless, other than the look, Kakashi let the matter drop and asked them to follow him outside

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They headed to a little clearing, close to where Naruto had been training in the morning, and Kakashi started to explain, what they would be doing…or at least tried but lost Naruto in his first question "let's talk about chakra" which predictably send Naruto on an internal tirade, about why would a real shinobi, not matter his status, wouldn't know about chakra, and effectively cut out anything that Kakashi said about the matter and let him surprised, again, when Sakura screamed at the top of her voice

"Tree climbing?" To which Naruto, who had been busy in dream land and hadn't completely return yet, blurted "You mean tree walking?" earning himself strange looks from his teammates and another suspicious glance from Kakashi

"What are you talking about Naruto?" Sakura practically screech, 'oops, now why should I say? In for a penny in for a pound I guess, besides he knows I can do water walking so it makes sense that I already know this…'

"I mean tree walking Sakura, you use chakra to stick to a tree and walk on it without your hands, is a simple chakra control exercise" Naruto answer back without any doubt, pretending this was some sort of common knowledge "here I'll show you" and with that he headed to the nearest tree and proceeded to walk on it with seemingly effortless grace further shocking his teammates and confirming his teachers suspicions, when he was resting on one of the highest branches Kakashi motioned for him to came back down, and Naruto already enjoying his teammates expressions jumped down and landed softly in the ground, enhancing said expressions and listened as Kakashi explained how the exercise was done 'Well not that that wasn't fun or anything, but why is he explaining all this, I mean he has been training Sasuke-teme and Sakura has so little chakra her control is already excellent so why are we doing this?" but apparently he hadn't taught Sasuke the exercise and Sakura could only go about a quarter of the tree height without getting tired, so they could use some practice and that left them alone and gave Kakashi a chance to question him, which Naruto had guessed was the real propose behind the exercise

"So Naruto, I think we need to talk" Kakashi said approaching Naruto and eying him thoughtfully

"What do you mean sensei?" Naruto answer back innocently

"About what you did in the fight back there"

"I don't understand what is the matter, I only fought back" Naruto replied calmly

"Yeah, you did but I don't know how you were able to fight like that"

"Well I have been training and…" Naruto tried to explain, however Kakashi stopped him before he could say anything else

"You honestly expect me to believe this was just the product of a little training? We are a team and I'm your teacher, I need to know the truth" Kakashi said in an unusual stern tone, Naruto knew what he was implying: that the fox was somehow related to his abilities, and he had even been expecting it had even plan to pretend to be innocent and even offended, but he hadn't been expecting to hear about the team and especially not about his sensei, and that surprisingly hurt and made him angry, making it difficult to keep the act, and when he looked in Kakashi's eyes he realized he made a huge mistake while planning for this situation, he hadn't counted the fact that this was Kakashi, sure he had understood it in a conscious level, but had completely forgot that regardless of how Kakashi acted, he still look like the Kakashi he knew and respected, he still look like his brother and in his current state of mind it was impossible to lie to him, however he wasn't about to confess all his secrets, so instead he went with his emotions and asked him what he had been wondering for a while

"Are we? … a team I mean"

"What are you talking about?"

"I'm asking you if we are really a team Kakashi, or we are only a team when it suits you." Naruto couldn't stop his words even if he wanted and he wasn't sure if he really wanted to stop… it felt good to let it all out "When have you ever treat me like I'm part of this so-called team? You left me behind the first day without a second thought, when I asked you to train me you simply pushed me to the side, you have not taught me the first thing since team seven was formed and it has already been two months, you said we're a team and yet you only seem concern about Sasuke, so I'm asking you, are we a team?"

By the time Naruto was done speaking his voice was thick with emotion and Kakashi was staring at him open mouthed, not that anybody could tell but you get the idea, but before Kakashi could give anything resembling to an answer, Naruto spoke again, this time with a wise, profound voice that didn't seemed to belong to one so young

"I understand you needed someone to bear the guilt, but I don't understand why you all seem bend on placing the burden on a child" Naruto didn't look up but his voice grew quieter, this was hurting him more than he was willing to admit "I taught you would be able to see me as me and not as the fox, but I understand if is asking too much…just please don't pretend to care… it only hurts worst" Naruto was ready to walk away and find someplace to deal with the pain alone, when Kakashi suddenly grab him by his shoulders and forced him to face him

"I do see you, don't think for a second I actually think of you as the Kyuubi, the fourth was my teacher and he explain the sealing to me, don't you dare to think I don't care about you" Naruto was surprised by the unusual show of emotions, he was even more surprised to see that it was all truth, everything he had been saying… but still he needed to know… "Then why?"

"I'm not really sure… I didn't meant to ignore you or act like I hated you…it's just that sometimes is painful to look at you" Kakashi tried to explain and hastily added when he saw the hurt look pass Naruto's face "Not because of Kyuubi or something like that, it's because you remind me of…someone I used to know and sometimes is really hard to not think of him when I'm near you…."

'Is he talking about dad? Then why…no, he doesn't seem to be talking about him…I think; either way I guess I can understand why he behaves like that sometimes…but still…' Naruto wasn't sure how to respond, he was never one to hold grudges but he couldn't forget all that Kakashi did or didn't do and trust him with his secrets, besides he still wasn't sure if kakashi knew about his father, so for now…

"I think I understand but I'm still not sure if I can trust you…yet" Naruto finally replied in a sad tone and ran into the forest, it was too much to deal right now and he wasn't ready to take care of his team so instead he decided to blame some innocent trees and rocks and started the relaxing process of destroying everything in a ten foot radius until darkness finally claimed him.

**&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&**

The next morning the sun was shining brightly in the sky, the birds were happily singing on the forest and someone, who looked like a young lady, was walking around what seemed like a war zone that used to be a forest, when she noticed a blonde boy lying in the grass apparently dead to the world and all around him, when the lady approached him she sighted the peaceful expression on his face and the headband around his neck that marked him as a ninja, however she decided to wake him and make sure he was alright but before she could touch him his eyes snapped open to reveal the more beautiful sky blue eyes she had ever seen, holding an expression of complete innocent and confusion in the surface, that would have tricked most people on first sight but that was just a disguise to hide the deep of those blue eyes, and that was when she decided to forgo all facades in a sudden whim, hoping that this kid would drop his "The forest is dangerous" she stated simply, the boy locked eyes with her and a foxy grin graced his features

"Yes it is my friend, do you need any help?" He offered simply in return and they worked on collecting medicinal plants in comfortable silence, he didn't asked which plants were needed it and she didn't told him, knowing instinctually he already knew the answer

"Were you training?" she asked after a while breaking the silence

"Not really, I was simply releasing some frustrations" he replied while scratching the back of his head

"Still…you must be really strong to destroy all this"

"I'm not sure, most of the times destroying is an easy task that won't require true strength, I doubt this proves my strength"

"Why do you want to be strong?"

"I want to be strong to protect the people I love, even if they don't love me back…they are important to me and I'll do anything in my power to protect them, that is my nindo" Naruto replied in a confident tone looking directly in her eyes and sending shills down her back, however Naruto was smiling and didn't change his expression when he asked her "what about you hunter-niisan? Why are you training?"

If he was shocked that the kid not only knew she was really a he, but also who he really was, he didn't let his face show any of his surprise, instead he simply looked him in the eyes and answer his question

"I also have someone to protect, someone that gave meaning to my life when it had none, he is the only precious person in my life and I'll do anything to serve him"

"Is he worth it?"

"Does it matter?"

"No, not really; I understand your point and I even understand your pain… is a shame really, when someone is fighting for something they believe in they are harder to defeat, but when someone is fighting to protect the ones precious to them they become even stronger, most people never understand this and spend their lives looking for the wrong kind of strength" Naruto finally replied with the sad smile that fitted him so perfectly, they were done picking the herbs at this point and were standing there looking at each other in silence, finally Naruto broke the stillness

"When we meet again I won't insult you by holding back fake-hunter-niisan, my name is Naruto and I'm looking forward to facing a strong enemy as yourself" his voice was sure, his eyes were warm and his face showed a real smile that lighten up his face giving him an angelic expression, this wasn't the Naruto of this world this was a different and improved Naruto, one that this world was just about to meet.

"My name is Haku, and I'll be ready when we fight each other, I don't want to leave behind any regrets" the black haired boy replied with a smile of his own


	8. All out

**A change in scenery**

**Chapter 7 – All out**

The original-Naruto had eyes that spoke of loneliness and hate, the eyes of someone that knows the injustices of the world and the darkness in it, the original-Naruto had sad eyes barely hidden to the outside world by his cheerful façade, but the new Naruto didn't.

Sure he had seen some of the worst parts of human kind and had suffered some injuries in his own flesh, he had even added up the ones of the original-Naruto to his collection but he had also seen the best of the world: he had felt true and unconditional love, he had experienced loyalty, respect and even admiration. Therefore his eyes never changed to looked like the original-Naruto's eyes.

He had thought, before meeting his current number one foe (the whatever-it-was), that he knew how loneliness felt, however when he saw the world through the other Naruto's eyes, when he felt it in what seemed his own flesh, he realized he knew nothing of loneliness prior to this. Most people assume that loneliness is just a feeling like any other but now Naruto knew different, he knew that loneliness was like a whole in your chest threatening to suck your entire soul, he knew that the pain that being alone brought to a person wasn't any normal pain it was close to an open bleeding wound that you can close and that drains away your life, and he knew that if someone closed that wound it was practically the same as saving your life, however even thought he knew all of this his eyes still didn't change, it wasn't for lack of understanding it was the opposite actually…

Naruto understood all this in a way most people never would, he understood loneliness but he knew from experience that anyone who hadn't suffer through it wouldn't (and he had decided that not many people would if he could do anything to help it) and because he knew this he didn't blame them or was jealous of them. Naruto knew the other side of the fence and knew that to them pain as the one he had felt was unimaginable, once, when he was younger and had had a really bad mission, he had told his dad while he was trying to console him that there were people who lived harder lives than his own and he shouldn't be feeling so bad, and his father had smiled a sad smile and told him that that didn't make it easier on him just harder on them, he hadn't really understood, not then, but those words finally made sense when he was faced with a harder version of his life, he couldn't blame them for not seeing the pain they were inflicting when they couldn't even understand it, not that he had forgive them everything but he wasn't really all that angry at them, and was this understanding that gave his eyes a different look.

Naruto's eyes always seemed older than they should; it was only natural for someone that killed for the first time at the age of 8 to look older, but since he had arrived at this world his eyes seemed to hold the kind of wisdom you expect in an old warrior, the eyes of someone who has seen the worst of this world and risen above it, he also had more experience hiding behind a mask so it was harder to see the real depth of those sky blue eyes, unless you knew what to look for.

Still even if he didn't have the same eyes as the original-Naruto he saw enough of them to recognize the tail-tale signs of someone with a similar past, so it came as a surprise to Naruto when he woke up the next morning after his discussion with Kakashi (and after destroying part of the forest) to see beautiful brown chocolate eyes holding the same kind of pain the original-Naruto's eyes had seemed to hold.

That brought his suspicions forward and forced him to study the girl in front of him, the first thing he noticed was that 'she' was a boy, this boy seemed strangely familiar and after a couple of minutes trying to place him, Naruto finally realized this was the fake-hunter-nin that had saved Zabuza after the fight; at first he wasn't too sure on how to react 'what should I do? On one part this is an enemy and I probably should try to attack him or at least search for help, but on the other side he doesn't seem to be about to attack me and…ugh, who I'm I kidding the curiosity about this boy is killing me…' So Naruto decided to see what this boy wanted.

Naruto was surprised when the boy made no efforts to hide his identity but resolved to pay him in kind and didn't bother to put on the, always fun, stupid mask.

Naruto didn't asked any questions at first and simply answered the boy being as truthful as he could, however when he explained his reasons for becoming strong he saw understanding in the other's eyes and finally asked him about his past, when he hear the answer he immediately realized that Zabuza had saved this boy and in doing so earned his devotion, he didn't bother to question this, not when he knew that if somebody had done the same for the original-Naruto they would have become part of Naruto's identity in the same way, so instead he offered the only thing he could: he gave the boy his respect.

* * *

By the time Haku went his way, Naruto was more than pleased with his choices and, in some ways, looking forward to the big fight, 'Taking about the fight I wonder what time is it?' looking in the sky he realized it was probably close to 8 in the morning and Kakashi was probably going to start wondering about his location soon, however there was still a part of Naruto that didn't want to go back yet, so he send a clone, not to pretend to be him but simply to inform Kakashi he was going to train for a while and be back before night fall, he also replaced the clones working on the bridge (the ones by the house were still intact) and finally headed to a nearby river to do some 'light' training.

By the time noon came around Naruto decided that working himself out in the middle of nowhere when there was a possibility for an attack wasn't a very good idea, but still not inclined to deal with everybody he headed to the bridge to see how things were doing.

When he arrived he saw Kakashi looking at the bridge in disbelieve, one of his clones dispersed to inform him that in the morning Sakura had been 'guarding' the bridge (more like trying to stay awake) and Kakashi had just arrived and was apparently surprised by what he saw, not that many would understand his shock…

You see Naruto in his eternal quest to avoid being bored even by the simplest of activities decided that to send an army of look-a-like to help in the bridge was, well, boring, so instead he send an army of look-a-likes transformed to look like and army of missing-nins, so right now there were about a couple hundred of missing-nin (taken from their descriptions in the bingo book or memory) helping to build the wave bridge, and imposing picture (according to Naruto), also looking to increase his personal enjoyment ha had created clones of his dad and the other Hokages that were guarding each extreme of the bridge and even a fake orochimaru and a fake Gatou (based on the local's descriptions) that were tied up in the middle of the bridge, so basically your regular helping crew.

Anyway, bearing in mind that Sakura never usually read anything remotely useful she hadn't realized what she was seeing, but seeing as Kakashi was an elite jounin he immediately recognized the scene and, after making sure it wasn't a genjutsu, could only stare in confusion until he realized this was Naruto doing a couple minutes later.

"Hey, Kakashi-sensei fancy meeting you here" Naruto said in a nonchalant tone while wearing his favorite foxy grin

"Yes, this is your doing I presume?"

"I can honestly say I have no clue of what you're talking about" Naruto replied in fake innocence

"Yeah, sure whatever" Kakashi conceded "I been meaning to talk with you" Kakashi added in a serious voice "I know you don't trust me yet and I won't push you on the subject for the moment" he hastily explained when he saw Naruto was about to protest "But we are in a dangerous situation and I need to know what you can do in a real fight in order to be ready for an attack" Kakashi finally elaborated

Naruto thought about this for a while, on one hand he really wasn't ready to part with his secrets but on the other he understood what Kakashi was saying, so having decided that his personal preferences weren't primordial and that he didn't have to be completely open with Kakashi he finally agreed to show him what he could do.

So, with the bridge protected by the clones they headed to a clearing were they decided that the best way to gauge Naruto's abilities was a fight between them.

They charged at each other at the same moment using a fraction of their real speed and Naruto still wearing his gravity seal, but not the resistance one, their kicks collided in the air and Naruto was forced to disable the gravity seal to escape the force of his teacher kick, realizing this Kakashi attacked using an incredible speed and forcing Naruto in the defensive, however as soon as Kakashi gave him a minute to breath Naruto summoned his signature shield and went into his style stances.

The next time Kakashi attacked, Naruto moved like a ghost just barely avoiding being hit, however a couple of attacks later Naruto realized that in his current condition he couldn't find an opening to attack Kakashi, thus instead he opted for using one of his styles special moves, so he filled the air around him with his own wind chakra and created a void around himself while filling the air outside this zone, effectively creating a two capes shield that helped to increase his speed even more and to slow his enemies attacks near him, the drawback of this technique was that it required a fair amount of control, so he couldn't use it to its full capacities (yet).

However it served to distract Kakashi and gave him time to create five more clones that spread around the terrain and throw weapons at Kakashi, which helped by a well placed Shuriken Kage Bunshin no Jutsu (Shuriken Shadow Clone Jutsu), that Kakashi was unaware he could use, forced Kakashi to dodge what seemed like a rain of weapons and gave Naruto the time to try a Fuuton: Kami Kaze (Wind Style: Divine Wind) mixed with Katon: Dai Endan (Fire Style: Great Fireball) that created a magnificent fire tornado that headed straight for Kakashi, however before it could hit its target Kakashi used a (Suiton: Ja No Kuchi) - Water Style: Water Snakes Mouth to flood the area and then a secondary jutsu to direct the water in the form of a serpent and attack Naruto effectively canceling his attack and forcing Naruto to dodge, after that they traded a couple more attacks the same way.

However Naruto's (still) far from perfect control and lack of a complete jutsu arsenal eventually tired him out and Kakashi's, tired from his use of the sharingan, wasn't doing much better, but still he had more stamina than Naruto and using a (Doton: Ganchurou) - Earth Style: Earth Pillar Prison finally managed to trap Naruto down.

Naruto wasn't a fool and knew that Kakashi was far from fighting at full strength, however he couldn't helped but smile when they were done, the fight was fun and Naruto felt good with his progress so far, after all for only a couple of months of real training this was awesome.

Kakashi was impressed and said as much to Naruto when the fight was over, he also advised him that, due to the current situation, it would be more useful for Naruto to fight him a couple hours every day to help his body to ingrain the reflexes he would need in a real fight and for Naruto to gain some quick experience that would be useful when he was forced into a real fight, all of which Naruto readily agree, having already thought most of it but having to reject the plan due to the lack of an available partner.

The rest of the time Kakashi would train the rest of the team in the basics, hopefully making them less pathetic (that wasn't exactly what Kakashi said but it was what Naruto understood) and Naruto could spend his time resting, helping to guard the bridge or simply wondering around.

After that they finally gave the day a rest and headed to the house to get something to eat (Naruto had eaten in the forest since yesterday lunch) when they arrived was to a very relieved Tsunami that had been worrying after Naruto in spite of Kakashi's and her father's reassurances that Naruto could take care of himself, so after chatting with her for a while and cleaning himself a little, Naruto opted to help her cook dinner for the rest of the team.

* * *

Dinner was for the most part a quiet affair, with Sasuke giving Naruto ill-concealed glares (apparently he was having problems with the tree walking exercise and by some strange reasoning blaming Naruto) Sakura alternating between trying to force Sasuke in a date and glaring at Naruto (apparently she also blamed Naruto for Sasuke's lack of progress) Kakashi completely absorbed in reading his book, Inari eating in silence, Tazuna drinking sake and Naruto ignoring his teammates pathetic attempts of intimidation and chatting happily with Tsunami, who was on the point of falling in love of him, and blushing every other comment, much to Naruto's amusement.

However the mood was broken when the pink-girl focused her attention on a picture on the wall and decided it was her place to mess in other people business and asked why the picture was torn and who was supposed to be in the picture, which forced and awkward silence in the table and finally Tsunami was force to answer that the man in the picture was her husband and for Tazuna to add that he was the hero of wave, which in turn made Inari leave the table and for Tazuna to explain the story of how Kaiza died for the city and broke Inari's spirit, however Naruto having already heard the story chose to follow Inari instead and trying to talk to him.

When Naruto found Inari he was sitting in a ledge looking sadly at the sea

"Mind if I join you? This is a beautiful sight"

"What are you doing here? Whatever you're thinking don't come bothering me, you know nothing of me" Inari practically screamed, however Naruto only smiled back and replied in a soothing tone

"Well that is not entirely true, I know plenty of you, I know of your father Kaiza and the way he left you, and I know of your mother and grandpa; so I know a little of you"

"But you don't understand… you don't know how I feel" Inari replied quietly realizing that screaming didn't seem to bother Naruto.

"Does it hurts to think of him? Do you still feel betrayed?" Naruto asked while gazing at the sky without looking at Inari and then continued without waiting for an answer

"He promised to stay by your side and protect you, and then went and left you, I get it…but he couldn't stay with you and keep his promise, he couldn't stay without betraying his heart, he loved you Inari and he loved the city, and he couldn't sit back and watch the things he loved get destroyed without fighting back, that wasn't the kind of man he was and you shouldn't ask him to be different, I understand what he was thinking because I feel the same, he wasn't afraid of dying he was afraid of going against his heart and ideals, he knew that only then would he truly be dead if not in body then in soul" Naruto's voice sounded old and sad like he was speaking of someone he knew, and he was even if no one present knew it.

Finally looking back at Inari who was crying quietly he smiled and said in an honest tone "Be proud of him, honor his sacrifice and cherish the ones you had left is the least you can do on his name" when he finished Naruto went back to the house to get some sleep leaving a crying but comforted Inari behind and, without his knowledge, a grateful and impress Tsunami with an equally impress but also curious Kakashi.

After that things settled in a kind of routine, in the mornings before the rest of the house (except Kakashi) woke up Naruto would do his usual morning workout and be back in time for breakfast, afterwards while Kakashi went with Sasuke and Sakura to start their training he would head to the bridge for a couple of hours until Kakashi came looking for him, they would fight and head back for some lunch and in the afternoons Naruto would usually take Inari to the town and played with him and some other kids of the area or simply wondered around town checking things out and beating any unlucky thug that crossed his path. By the time two weeks had passed almost everyone in town knew who Naruto was and were more than happy to see him around.

* * *

It was two weeks later while Naruto was working out, that one of the ever present clones on the bridge dispersed himself to alert Naruto of an attack, Naruto immediately headed for the bridge knowing the clones at the house would alert everyone else of the attack and that given his current location he was going to be the last to arrive.

He wasn't worried about the workers of the bridge since at the first sign of trouble the clones would trade places with them and led them to safety while buying time facing Zabuza (since those were normal clones, they couldn't do much more than that) however he knew he needed to hurry before they managed to destroy the bridge, while he was running another of his clones informed him that Tazuna had already left in the company of the rest of his team and should be arriving at the bridge in that moment.

By the time team seven sans Naruto arrived at the bridge most of the clones were already destroyed or hiding and the mist was already covering most of the bridge.

"Long time no see, Kakashi" Zabuza's voice sounded from all around them "I see you're still babysitting, look he is even shaking, poor kid" when he finished talking team 7 realized they were surrounded by clones however Kakashi asked Sasuke to take care of them which was done with relatively ease, seeing as the clones were completely taken by surprised not expecting the kid who wasn't able to move a muscle the last time to be the one fighting.

"Impressive seems he has grown, it looks like a worthy rival..Eh, Haku?" Zabuza asked his companion who was wearing the hunter-nin mask from before

"It does indeed" Haku replied not really meaning it, but not wanting to explain either.

* * *

While this was happening in the bridge some samurai thugs were trying to take Tsunami as a hostage, however the moment they pushed her to the side Inari attacked them from behind and while something like that, no matter how brave, would normally lead to his death luck was on Inari's side seeing as Naruto's clones immediately intercepted the unlucky thugs and kick the shit out of them in matter of seconds without breaking a sweat and happily congratulated Inari on showing real strength while making sure everything was alright in the house and helping Tsunami clean around the place seemingly unconcerned about the fate of the wanna-be-samurais.

* * *

Back in the bridge while Haku was getting ready to attack Sasuke, Naruto arrived at the bridge and created a couple of combat clones (clones with more chakra than normal) to guard Tazuna and joined his team facing the missing nin, immediately becoming the center of attention from said ninjas, apparently they had already learnt not to underestimate him 'now if only my team learnt to do the same…'

"It seems like the final actor has arrived, this time I won't let you take me by surprise" Zabuza said in way of greeting.

"Let me fight him Zabuza-sama" Haku asked almost at once surprising Zabuza since Haku rarely was excited about fighting, so he readily agreed and Haku blurred out of existence and reappeared next to Naruto who also blurred and attacked Haku from behind, who responded in kind finally locking themselves in a strength match, all of this happened in matter of seconds and too fast for Tazuna (or Sakura) to see most of it.

"Like I said before I won't hold anything back from this fight so you better come at me with everything" Haku explained from his position while trying to force Naruto to back away.

"It would be my honor to do so, Haku" Naruto replied evenly while both forgot all about the onlookers and focused on his promised fight, both knowing Zabuza and Kakashi would soon begin their own fight, Naruto's clones would protect Tazuna and forgetting all about the other two.

They traded a couple of attacks while pushing the other to go faster, however Haku took advantage of the water lying in the floor from the destroyed water clones and used one of his special techniques that created a huge amount of needles that headed straight for Naruto and that Haku could basically control at will, to which Naruto responded by avoiding them with his specialty ghost movements and finally reappearing behind Haku and managing to kick him in his ribs which send him flying in the air, however before Naruto could continue his attack Haku flashed through some signs and created a dozen of ice mirrors that trapped Naruto inside

While the two of them were busy fighting the rest of the ninjas look dumbfounded at the fast paced fight, with undisguised proud in some cases and jealousy in others, either way it wasn't until the ice dome appeared in the middle of the bridge blocking the view of the fight that they snapped out of their shock and remembered what they were supposed to be doing and Kakashi ordered Sasuke and Sakura to help the clones guarding Tazuna while he engaged Zabuza in a fight trusting Naruto to get out of the dome on his own.

For his part Naruto was busy dodging the senbon needles that Haku was using in his quest to turn him in a human pincushion which wasn't meeting too much success seeing as Naruto was hardly hit by any of the needles thanks to his speed and wind shield, however the same could be said about Naruto and his attempts to exit the ice-mirror-dome seeing as none of his attacks was capable of destroying the ice-mirrors-from-hell, as he had doubled them, either way you look at it they were locked at a tie.

'Damn, there's got to be a way to break this mirrors but none of my current techniques seems to be working and is really too dangerous to try any more advanced techniques without the proper training…this is so frustrating knowing the stuff and not being really able to use it…either way if I don't think of something soon I'm gonna run out of energy…ugh, there's got to be a way…maybe I'm not thinking this from the right perspective, I can't break this mirrors at my current level, but there is nothing stopping me from forcing him to drop this jutsu … except his speed but that is something that can be easily solved…'

With that thought Naruto went into his next level of speed, the two levels shield he had used before while fighting Kakashi, one thing he needed to do in other for the technique to work was use some small amounts of chakra to sharpen his eyesight in order to not be completely blinded by the high speed, the more his body grew used to the additional speed the less chakra he had to use to obtain the same results, however at this stage of his training he was still highly dependent on this point.

Nevertheless, this also enabled him to track high speed moving objects, like projectile heading his way or in this case moving people between mirrors, giving him an opening to attack a surprised Haku, using his increase speed to throw a chakra strengthened punch at Haku's face that forced him into one of his mirrors, after that the fight became increasingly one sided until Haku highly depleted of chakra was forced to drop the mirror jutsu and admit defeat at the hands of an almost equally tired Naruto.

"I lost, kill me now" Haku said simply without bothering to explain already guessing Naruto would understand his reasons.

"Not yet, losing doesn't immediately erase your reasons for existing, it just forces you to face your motives for living, Zabuza is still fighting but if he is defeated he won't give up his life that easily, or will he?" Naruto answered back calmly while trying to catch his breath in case he needed to fight some more, he really didn't wanted to be the one to finish Haku's life, he respected Haku's strength and even Zabuza's on some levels even if they were currently enemies, he had found that in some cases the enemies of today could become your future allies, and sadly it was also truth the other way around, so he always tried to not kill needlessly, he wasn't afraid of taking a life but he would rather let them keep their lives and fight another day, he knew most people didn't saw it his way but he rarely bother with other people opinions.

"I understand, I'll live… for now" Haku answered simply after some though.

Unfortunately, before Naruto could allow the relief to reach his body he sensed a familiar and hated presence in the extreme of the bridge and he practically growled in its direction, forcing the presence to make itself known to him and Haku, while the rest of the ninjas were busy watching the Zabuza vs. Kakashi fight.

The figure that approached them was a blond and tall man, around his mid twenties with small cat-like eyes and a fake smile on his face; he wore a sort of gray kimono on top of black pants and a light blue scarf around his neck, finally he wore a head band tied around his right arm with a scratch in the middle identifying him as a missing ninja from the rock village

'I can't believe my luck, it's like Kami and the rest of the gods hate my guts and are using any means available to torture me, even going as far as to send me to a different world… when I see the whatever-it was that send me here I'll kill her first and ask questions later'

Now a small part of Naruto that wasn't busy cursing the heavens or controlling his homicidal urges, was considering the small possibility that this Tai was different from the one he knew, however it was largely ignored by the rest of his conscious and proved mistaken the moment the strange man opened his mouth.

"Hello my friends, what a lovely day, would you mind terribly coming with me to my camp?" the man known to Naruto as Tai asked in a fake cheerful tone that made Naruto want to choke him to death .

"Why would we do that?" Haku asked calmly sensing Naruto discomfort, however he soon wished he had just kept his mouth shut.

"Because if you don't I'll make sure pretty soon you'll be begging me to send you to hell" Tai asked changing his expression into one that resembled more a monster than a man and send chills down Haku's and Naruto's backs "Here let me show you" he said in freakily void tone, like he was discussing the weather or something equally boring, and without missing a beat blurred out of existence and tried to use his sword to cut Haku's leg in a way that would not kill him but would made it impossible for him to use that leg correctly and would cause him almost unbearable pain.

Naruto, having been expecting something like this from the moment Tai made his appearance, was ready to move the weakened Haku out of the way before he could touch him, not doubting for a second that protecting the man he had been fighting moments ago was a good idea, Naruto was funny that way, anyhow Naruto forced Haku behind him while focusing all his attention on the man in front of him like a hawk watching his pray before attacking and giving him a glare that would send most men in search of a hiding place but that only served to increase Tai's everlasting smile.

"Oh my, such a serious boy, protecting your friend and facing me alone, impressive…you know, now that I think about it, I once met a man like you he even looked like you and had that same shade of eyes, even more he wore that same expression every time I met him" Tai said in a cheerful tone that, to those who knew him, betrayed his anger "You know what, there are some people that would pay good money to find that someone so eerily similar to him is still alive and kicking, you think you're his relative or something?... yeah I bet that's it…in that case there is a good deal of people who would be more than happy to pay for knowing about you… and who would fight for the privilege of separating your head and the rest of your body"

Tai said cheerfully while gaining a feral look of his own and attacking Naruto who barely managed to block before intercepting a near fatal kick to his ribs and receiving one to his stomach that knock all the air out of him, and would had probably broken a few bones if Naruto hadn't managed to use some chakra to diminish the damage, however before he could stand from the kick his instincts begged him to move out of the way giving him little to no time to avoid being cut in half by the other nin sword that still inflicted a wound to his back and pushed him in the ground.

"Too bad I'm one of the ones that would be willing to pay more for the honor of ending your miserable life" Finished Tai, letting his cheerful tone drop.

While all this had been going on Haku had simply stared unable to do anything to aid Naruto and stop the monster like man who was hurting him, however when the blond man was getting ready to deliver a fatal wound to the defenseless boy lying in the ground, Haku decided he had seen enough and forced himself to move as fast as he could reappearing moments later in front of Naruto willing to take the blow instead of his enemy/ally.

Naruto for his part was cursing his fate, 'I was barely capable of defeating him in a trained body with help of my comrades, how I'm I supposed to even touch him in this body and without any help at all' Naruto screamed inside his head, however in that moment he noticed Haku's movements and realized what was about to happen and, ignoring the sense of déjà-vu, felt his anger risen to the point where he could barely see and luckily for him that was the moment he heard a voice calling him and the world spun out of focus.

* * *

When Naruto could see again he was inside a perfectly quiet room with a beautiful picture hanging in top of one of the walls, it was a landscape of a blue sea with one red-headed woman standing in the middle of it, that image strangely enough seemed to comfort Naruto.

Looking around the room he realized it was empty and then he heard a deep voice calling him forward, he exited the room realizing for the first time where he was: ha was in the tridimensional dangerous maze also known as his mind…and that meant the only voice that could be calling him was the one belonging to the nine tailed fox.

'Oh, this is great, this day just keeps getting better and better, first I'm forced to fight one of the nicest people I've met, then one of the most horrible persons I've met shows up and now I'm going to meet the king of the demons that is trapped inside my belly, yeah this is the day that keeps on giving'

But still not seeing any other way out of this place, he decided to go met with the giant fur ball and see what it wanted, so going to the same room from before he came face to face with a very awake king of the demons.

"**So this is my container"** Kyubbi said to himself after contemplating him for a while **"not what I was expecting"**

"Well sorry to disappoint you, and not to be rude or anything but is there a reason you called me here, see I was about to be killed in the real world so is kind of important that I return before is too late" Naruto said in a not very friendly tone, but what do you expect he was having a really awful day.

"**Yeah, you see here is the problem…I REFUSE TO DIE BY YOUR FAULT"** Kyubbi snapped at Naruto

"Well I wasn't really planning on dying today fur ball, but guess what? I'm out of energy, out of tricks and out of ideas, so unless you have a plan don't come crying to me about your death" Naruto snapped back not in the least intimidated by the giant fox, that was after all trapped in his head (or belly).

"**Oh now that you mention it, let's see…oh yes, YOU HAVE A NEARLY ENDLESS CHAKRA SUPPLY TRAPED INSIDE OF YOU….besides that, not a clue" **

"OH right…I hadn't actually considered that…so how do I use your chakra?" Naruto asked after some consideration, (half a minute deciding he was probably dead either way so way not take a chance?).

"**Well right now you're too weak to handle more than two tails of power, and you are still going to have to give me some control to avoid hurting yourself or anyone else, but seeing as our only other choice is dying…"**

"Sure, just give me your word that the only one you would attack is going to be Tai and that once he is no longer an immediate treat you'll give me full control back and I'll do it" Naruto agreed carefully knowing full well once a demon gave its word he couldn't betray it without losing all his power.

"**Fine for now, but we are going to need to discus more permanent terms when this is over…I give you my word as the Kyubbi, now get ready to return to the real world"**

* * *

The minute Kyubbi finished talking Naruto was ejected from his mind and forced back in reality just in time to see Tai almost murdering Haku in front of him, so reacting on impulse and thanks to the Kyubbi's power he grabbed Haku and forced him out of the way and feeling how the more feral instincts of the Kyuubi took hold of some of his body he experienced a strange merge where he still felt like himself while at the same time his thought process seemed to become more basic, it was strange and a little disturbing but his newly alter instincts were telling him to fight the enemy and, since his conscious self readily agreed, he charged at Tai with his new found strength forcing him to back away.

* * *

Nearby in the bridge Kakashi's and Zabuza's fight was dragging on without anyone gaining the upper hand when they both noticed the demonic chakra being released and once their attention was forced out of their current fight they also noticed the presence of another powerful person that seemed to be engaged in the current fight, so mutually agreeing to postpone their fight until the third person was identified they moved in the direction the demonic chakra was coming from and Zabuza worked on releasing the mist, that was draining his reserves, when they were close enough to see what was happening all thoughts of fighting each other were pushed out of their minds while they rushed to help their respective students.

Naruto-kyubbi also having sensed their arrival backed up enough to catch his breath and was soon joined by both elite ninjas, stopping Tai's volley of attacks.

"Kakashi of the sharingan and Zabuza the demon of the mist, what a great honor for a lowly rock missing-nin as myself" Tai exclaimed in fake delight, sealing his sword and dropping his attack position, apparently not that interested in facing the three ninja's together.

"On the contrary it's us who are honored, after all is not every day we met the great Tai Zera the bloody assassin from the rock" Zabuza answered back never taking his eyes of him.

"And what are the assassins doing in the middle of wave country fighting a mere genin" Kakashi asked when Zabuza was done, trying to hide his growing restlessness.

"Oh that, old me only saw the boys fighting and grew interested. I was planning on torture them a little and then use them for a couple of jobs, however the _genin _over there reminded me of an old friend and didn't seemed willing to let me take the other kid so I decided to kill him and make sure all the reminders of my old friend where out of this world" Tai explained like he was discussing some everyday business and not his sadistic tendencies.

"Oh well, I guess I'll have to explain this lovely encounter to my friends" he added after a couple of seconds and then his features reverted to the psychotic look that he seemed natural at, and this time looking directly at Naruto finally added "They're going to be happy to hear that a fourth's look-a-like is still alive and waiting to de killed" and then Tai, seemingly, disappeared in the wind.

* * *

A minute later a commotion was heard in the edge of the bridge were Gato showed up surrounded by samurais and thugs and proceeded to explain how he never had any intention of honoring his contract with Zabuza and was planning on having him killed when his job was done.

Naruto, having reverted to normal the moment Tai left the bridge, couldn't phantom why gato felt the need to gloat about his betrayal when it was clear to everyone interested that Zabuza was still in a fighting condition, however not in the mood for long speeches when he was about ready to pass out he took a single kunai and, before anyone could react, throw it at Gato hitting him in the head and killing him seconds later.

For a moment nobody reacted, however soon some stupid samurais started screaming about him having killed their money ticket and were getting ready to attack, but before they could move most of the village people showed up carrying anything that could remotely resemble a weapon, and Kakashi and Zabuza created a couple dozens of clones, and essentially scared the hell out of the bandits that mostly ran as fast as they could from the bridge.

Naruto realizing the danger had pass and feeling incredibly tired after the long fights slowly succumbed to the darkness that was trying to claim him for the last couple of minutes and his last conscious thought before the world faded out of existence was 'God, this was an incredible long day'


	9. Going back

**A/N: **Sorry for the long time without an update but I had a major block in this story and I'm still not completely sure of how this chapter ended up…

In this chapter I explain about Tai and the assassins, but my other story 'memories' explains it better, so if you're interested or confused about that part you should read it.

* * *

**A change in scenery**

**Chapter 8 – Going back**

When Naruto finally managed enough energy to open his eyes again was only to realize he was no longer in the bridge, in fact, unless he was mistaken, he wasn't even in wave country instead he was in the middle of a nightmare…ok, anybody else would say it was a clearing in the middle of a forest, but to him it would always be part of a nightmare, and, this particular nightmare was one he thought he had outgrown or, at least, deal with long ago… 'But, I guess if Tai is alive, I'm, pretty much, back to square one… well, it makes sense that, at least a part of my mind, reassembles one of my nightmares'.

The fact that it took Naruto a couple of seconds to realize he was in his mind and not in the middle of a forest in Grass country was proof of the fact that he was too tired or that this place really freaked him out. Because, to anyone looking, the fact that the sky was red, the place was full of graves and there was not even a little wind was a dead giveaway that the place wasn't real (or that the world was over, but the former was more likely).

Either way once Naruto was sure this wasn't real (he had to checked for a genjutsu just to be completely certain) he decided that he wanted out of this place immediately; normally this sort of reaction wouldn't make much sense to most people, but then again unless you knew the real Naruto's history (which was pretty much impossible since this was another dimension and all that…) none of his latest reaction would make much sense.

First, there was Tai, commonly known as one of the seven assassins from stone and, in Naruto's opinion, a sadistic bastard. Basically the man was strong, scary and powerful and had a strange obsession with Konoha's yellow flash and, by extension, with Naruto.

The real Naruto met Tai when he was 8, the man tricked and betrayed his team, then captured them and, finally, killed two of the members of his team in front of Naruto, just for the fun of it…so, yes, Naruto hated the man, and had finally killed him when he was 11 (with the help of a whole team of ninjas) but now thanks to some strange twists of fate, the man was alive and Naruto too weak to fight him…

On the other hand there was the clearing (or more like the ghost of the clearing). Naruto didn't have any good memory of this place: it was where Tai brought him the first time he met him, where Tai killed his friends in front of him, where he was forced to fight an army of enemy ninjas to survive, where Naruto managed to complete the bases of his fighting style (maybe that was good) and the place where Naruto killed for the first time, not one enemy but dozens of enemies…overall, one of Naruto's least favorite places of all times.

Now if you add it all up….Naruto wanted out…and soon, so, following the now familiar calling of his personal demon, he managed to get out of the 'room' and into the maze of his mind in record time, and, following the ever changing path, he finally arrived at the cage that guarded the kyubbi…who was sleeping…again, for a minute Naruto considered his options: he could wake the demon, and ask him some of the questions that had been hunting him since his arrival at this 'happy' world, or he could, do the reasonable thing and let the giant demon sleep…well, nobody ever said he was reasonable…

"HEY, FUZZY BALL, WAKE UP!!!!"

"**What the hell are you doing?" **apparently Kyubbi was not a morning person or just didn't like being yelled, whatever….

"Hello kyubbi, you see, I woke up in my mind and since there is no one else around and I was feeling like talking ... I decided to wake you up, I hope you don't mind" Naruto answered in his most cheerful and innocent voice, going with his never ending plan of annoy everyone and everything…it was fun!

"**You are the strangest creature I have ever met"**

"Well, thank you, I personally think you are the scariest…umm…second scariest thing I've ever seen"

"**It wasn't a complement…and what do you mean 'the second scariest thing'?"**

"The shinagami was scarier…and was stronger since he sealed you…so, second overall"

"**Oh, I guess that makes sense…wait, WHY are we talking about this?"**

"You asked" Naruto stated simply

"**I did NOT"**

"Did so"

"**Did not"**

"Did so"

"**Just shut up stupid brat!"**

"As long as you asked politely… so anyway, how are you?"

"**Trapped into the belly of the most annoying brat ever"**

"Again, thank you, anything else?"

"**I think he might be slightly insane…other than that, fine" **

"I'm not insane, just bored and with little common sense"

"**The same thing, either way, what do you want brat?"**

"Why? Can't I just have a nice chat with the giant demon in my belly, without any ulterior motive?"

"**No, because then I'll have to revise my opinion on your sanity?"**

"Fine, be that way…I wanted to know, why did you attacked Konoha?"

"**Felt like it, anything else?"**

"Yeah…I'm not buying it"

"…"

"**You're not going to go, are you?"**

"Not until you answer…truthfully"

"**And why should I? Other than to get rid of you, although that is almost enough"**

"Oh now that you mention it, let's see… I'm the only one that can hear you, talk to you or help you, and in 5 years, give or take, you're gonna lose what's left of your powers and pass on, or whatever it is demons do, so, you don't have much time…besides that, not a clue"

"**Why are you so sure there it's more to this than a simple whim?"**

"First, I'm not one hundred percent sure, but even if I think once might be a whim, two times, on different dimensions and with different timelines, is too much to be a simple coincidence"

"**What are you talking about brat?"**

"How is it that you don't know? I mean, if you realized we were about to die, shouldn't you have noticed it when me and the 'original' me merged?"

"**All I know it's I went to sleep on a sewer and I woke up in this room, an improvement if you ask me, but I have no clue of how it happen. And, in case you are wondering (as I know you are), I only see things when I'm awake ... or if I review your memories, but it's boring, so I don't bother to do it"**

"Ok, I guess that makes sense, but this it's kind of hard to explain…long story short, I was supposed to die in my dimension (fighting you, by the way), but the whatever-it-was said I couldn't and send me here instead"

"**Yes, I see, you're awful explaining. How about this, I promise to check your memories soon and think about telling you the truth and in return YOU ****. LET . ME . SLEEP**?"

"I guess I could do that…for now"

"**Great, now GET OUT!"**

"Okay, see you fuzzy ball, nice chatting with you"

"**Too bad I can't say the same… and don't call me fuzzy ball!"**

By the time Naruto had finished talking to the king of demons, he was feeling much better, annoying people (or in this case thousand years old demons) had that effect on Naruto. So with his mood greatly improved and not any particular desire to wake up and face the music, or whatever was expecting him, he decided to search for a nice place to think for a little while

When he finally decided to settle in, in a little cozy room where there was a lovely beach and a sunny day. He was finally starting to admit, even if only to himself, that his father was right and his mind was a dangerous place, he had found a cliff so deep he wasn't sure there was a bottom, a couple of dangerous animals (lions and tigers, nothing to bad), a room full of enemy ninjas, a pitch black room, a few tombs and a couple of forests, just to mention a few, and that was only in the rooms he checked, not to mention he was pretty sure that the stairs and the walls actually moved since he hadn't managed to find his way back to any of the rooms in which he had been, so, all in all, his mind was an exciting place, he definitely was going to explore it later…but for now he needed some quiet time.

* * *

Naruto finally decided to wake up in the real world after resting for a while and immediately realized he wasn't in the bridge, but, he also wasn't in the forest; instead he was sleeping in a nice bed at Tazuna's house, and the only other occupant of the room was Haku.

Even if most people wouldn't be exactly pleased to be sharing a room with their one time enemies, Naruto was perfectly happy to be with the lonely boy, in fact, if he had to choose, he would rather his company to any of the members of his, so called, team, but maybe that had something to do with the fact that the other boy wasn't a rabid fan girl or a stuck up emo…

"I'm glad you're awake" Haku finally decided to interrupt Naruto's daydream about replacing at least one of his teammates with Haku "You were unconscious for two whole days, chakra depletion and a couple of injuries, however all of your wounds were healed in a couple of minutes, so it was mainly exhaustion that kept you down"

"Thanks Haku, you're the one that's been taking care of me?" Naruto was wondering about it, since no one else seemed to be near by.

"Yes mostly, the others don't have any medical knowledge so I volunteer to do it"

"Thanks, that was nice of you … so anything happened while I was out?"

"Well, not much, the bridge is advancing well, the people in town seem happier, your sensei is a little paranoid…oh, and the man of the bridge isn't anywhere near here in case you're wondering"

"Good, I hope he doesn't come back soon" 'Or I'm not sure I'll make it alive' Naruto added mentally "What do you plan on doing now?"

"Well, Tazuna offered to let us stay here for a while, so I think we will, afterwards I'm not sure" Haku explained while checking Naruto to make sure he was completely recovered.

"You seem to be almost back to full health, but you're going to need to take things easy for today, other than that, you're fine. Oh, and is almost time for lunch" Haku added figuring that Naruto was hungry after being asleep for two days.

After a couple of minutes Naruto entered the living room, where, a very exited, Inari was the first to welcome him, hugging him and jumping up and down, all the while ranting about how great Naruto was, much to the amusement of Haku and Tsunami, who also hugged Naruto and kissed him on the cheek, embarrassing Naruto even farther and making Haku laugh at loud. Finally, they settled down to eat since none of the others would be back before dinner.

During dinner Haku explained that most of the villagers were back working at the bridge and, since there wasn't much of a threat, Sasuke and Sakura were guarding it. Kakashi and Zabuza were busy with other stuff, mostly doing patrols and scanning the area, which confused Haku since he didn't understand why they were so worried about, and calmed Naruto since he knew why they were so worried about.

Thus, with everybody else busy, Naruto decided to go to town and do some shopping, since most of the clothes he had bought months before were almost completely destroyed or didn't fit him anymore, so he was going to take advantage of the fact he wasn't the more hated person in town and go shopping using his own body for a change, besides he needed some weapons (which were extremely hard to buy in Konoha…for him at least) and he was finally going to order his dearly missed cape, so he was really looking forward to a shopping trip.

Inari and Haku chose to accompany him, the former willing to use any excuse to spend time with his hero and older brother and the later having nothing better to do, Tsunami opted to stay at home, so the three boys headed into town.

Naruto loved the Land of Waves; for one thing, it reminded him of how his life used to be, before he met the whatever-it-was that turned his life upside down. Apparently the story of what happened at the bridge combined with Naruto's charming personality, served to make him a national hero, therefore everybody was happy to see him, smile at him, talk to him, sell him almost anything, and so on … 'If things could go back to being like this all the time…'

In the end, Naruto bought a whole new wardrobe and ordered his cloak from a couple of stores, all of whom offered him amazingly discounts and free stuff, however, he only bought a couple of weapons, since, once he explained to Haku what he wanted, the youth was more than happy to give it to him for free.

It appeared that Haku and Zabuza had collected many useful stuff in their journeys and most of the stuff was just laying around without being used, thus Naruto, Inari and Haku spent the rest of the afternoon looking for weapons and other interesting stuff, and then sealing it all away in a couple of scrolls (Haku, didn't asked how Naruto knew how to do that and was just happy he taught it to him, and Naruto was happy he could pretend that Haku taught him how to do it).

During dinner Sasuke and Sakura were trying to find a way to kill Naruto with their glares, apparently they were blaming him for their lack of progress or more likely for the lack of attention they were receiving, either way their plan wasn't having much success, since Naruto was busy chatting with the other more civil, and in his opinion more interesting, people at the table.

After dinner, Kakashi asked Naruto about Kyubbi (in private) and Naruto explained how he thought he was going to die and suddenly he was filled with this strange chakra and all this power, and how suddenly all he could think about was attacking his enemy and as soon as the 'strange looking guy' was gone all the strange chakra, left him.

All of which Kakashi believed completely, after all, Naruto was supposed to be a bad liar, and, even after discovering many of the secrets he had been keeping, misconceptions are hard to let go.

Naruto, for his part, asked Kakashi about the blonde man, Kakashi explained about who the man was: 'Tai Zera, the bloody assassin of the rock', and how he held a grudge with Konoha due to the battles in the third great shinobi war, and attacked Naruto because he was a Konoha-nin. While on the outside it looked as Naruto was buying the story on the inside it was a different story… 'Sure, that's why he tried to kill me, and the fact that I look exactly like my father, the man Tai and the rest of his 'friends' swore to destroy, has nothing to do with it…apparently, I don't need to know why they want to kill me'

The next morning Sasuke-teme and Sakura found a new reason to hate Naruto; Kakashi explained that, because Naruto was still weak (which he really wasn't) and because there might had been another fight (only if Tai had come back), it was better for Naruto to stay in the town, so, even if Naruto was awake, they would have to keep guarding the bridge. And, even if the whole story was bullshit, Naruto didn't want to be stuck in the bridge all day so he went with it. Leaving him free to do whatever he wanted.

For the next week while the bridge was being finished, Naruto developed a routine, of sorts, on the mornings he trained with Haku, who was incredibly fast and quite strong, making him an awesome training partner, afterwards they would eat their lunch and they spent their afternoons with Inari and the other kids playing around, something both boys enjoyed. During that time Haku and Naruto developed a close friendship and Inari was like their little brother.

On the day the bridge was supposed to be completed; Haku led Naruto and Inari back to their hideout, this time they were looking for scrolls to help with Naruto's training, since, in one of the many chats they had, Naruto explained to Haku, how hard it was for him to find someone willing to train him in Konoha and how Kakashi, even if he had improved a little still didn't looked interested in doing his job.

It seemed that once Haku found out about this, he asked Zabuza for advice and someway managed to convince him to give Naruto some scrolls with techniques to help with his training. Thus, now they were looking for the ones that Naruto wanted to take and one of the scrolls he found had him madly thrilled…it was an Uzumaki scroll; according to what little information Naruto had, Kushina (his mother), was only able to save a small percentage of the family scrolls, when she was forced to abandon her homeland, the rest were either lost or destroyed. So, for Naruto to come across one…well you get the idea.

Naruto could honestly say he was completely depressed about leaving the land of waves, and that he was already planning to return as soon as possible, this wasn't helped by the fact he was going to be left alone with an obsess Uchiha, a pink-haired fan girl and a perverted teacher, overall, he was starting to wonder if he could buy a place nearby and stay for a little while…

By the time they were ready to leave, the whole town had come to say goodbye, further increasing Naruto's desire to stay, however with the final goodbyes out of the way, and leaving behind a teary eyed Inari, they were finally on their way back to Konoha.

The trip back home was uneventful, if you ignore that, unnoticed by half of the team (I'll let you guess which half), Kakashi was on complete alert mode and was setting a pass a tad higher than which Sakura could handle, leaving her completely exhausted and mercifully quiet. During the whole trip Naruto amused himself with a book he had bought at the town and that basically described the adventures of a ninja by the name of Naruto…ok, so, he was rereading it as a way to remember his godfather, to whom he still didn't have a location; but either way it served to occupy him.

* * *

As soon as they made it pass Konoha's gates Kakashi ran away, with some lame excuse about his neighbor's dog that Naruto didn't really bother to listen; figuring beforehand Kakashi was going to go to the Hokage first chance he got, hopefully to inform the old man of the new group of A-ranked and a few S-ranked shinobi chasing after Konoha's resident pariah.

Some days, Naruto was sure that somebody was playing with him; trying to see how much more could they mess up his life, before he just snapped.

Not long after Kakashi disappear, Naruto also made his exit using Kakashi as a distraction and he was already half way to his apartment, at a neck breaking speed, before any of his teammates noticed he was gone.

Once Naruto made it back to his small apartment he was happy to see everything was just as he left it, and even the fact that this was, most probably, due to the security seals he put in the place before leaving wasn't enough to dampen his mood, however when he was getting ready to unpack (or more precisely unsealed) the things he had bought in his trip (including his awesome new cloaks) a though, that did dampen his mood, assault him, the seals might have been enough this time since most of his enemies were only civilians, but he had just been put, again (or for the first time depending on how you look it), on the hit list of much more dangerous people than the villagers and he was pretty sure a few security seals wouldn't stop them.

'Shit, what to do?...As far as my things go, I could leave them sealed and carry them around, but, even if I sleep with one eye open from now on, this place is still too dangerous…I guess I might get lucky and the Hokage will move me, or at least assign some kind of guards…nothing to do but wait…'

While he was waiting, Naruto, decided to use his time tracking down some of his friends and checking what they were up to, as far as Naruto knew, which was plenty, not much had changed in the village while he was out, the reason he was pretty sure of this, was that most of his clones were, in fact, still active until he arrived.

The ones disguised as villagers and the ones playing with Kon, were, for the most part, completely intact since they didn't used any chakra and not much energy; the ones investigating the city *cough* spying *cough* where the first ones to deplete, luckily, he had guessed as much, and had assigned other replacements, that had also depleted a couple days ago; the other clones had either stayed around his friends either training a little, or just messing around, and only a couple of them had been dispersed, so overall, he still had eight working clones when he arrived from his C/A-ranked mission.

So Naruto knew that nothing really important had happen, except some of the villagers wondering why the 'demon child', wasn't with the rest of the team, something one of his disguised clones decided to explain before the grapevine was set in motion.

Something that had two unexpected effects, the first one was that, the unlucky (or lucky) clone, was forced into the center of one of the hottest gossips in town, granting him immediately a position among the rumor mile, which basically meant that as soon as anyone knew anything of any interest whatsoever, he was going to be informed and forced into an extensive discussion of the subject, this coupled with the fact that the clone, being a clone, didn't had to work and was, therefore, always available increased his popularity to the point where he was always one of the first to hear about anything that happened, something that the clone hated with a passion, but was forced to put up with, since any information, no matter how useless it seemed, might prove to be worth it later on, so Kuro ( also known as the unlucky clone) was going to stick around for some time.

The other even more completely unexpected consequence of this little piece of information sharing, was something that was pick up by the spy-clones; while one of this clones was busy trying to make his way to the secrets archives of the village (something he wasn't even suppose to know that existed much least where it was located), the other clone was shadowing some ninjas, hoping to find some piece of useful information, while this didn't managed to produced any ground breaking results, it was enough to found some interesting pieces of info, and one particular piece was the one related to the gossip incident.

Apparently not all Konoha ninjas were blind and stupid, this was something that Naruto had been absolutely sure before meeting the whatever-it-was, however after that ill-fated day he had begun to doubt this fact, luckily, this new piece of information was proof of the contrary, apparently a good number of ninjas actually had enough faith on the fourth Hokage (or at least a good pair of eyes) to acknowledge, even if only to themselves, that Naruto was not in fact the Kyubbi reborn and, thus, wasn't someone to be hated beyond reason, however, by some unlucky star, they still believed he was a useless ninja.

Nevertheless, once they started to see the changes in Naruto and finally when they discover that he had managed to produce half a dozen clones (as far as they knew) with enough chakra to stay behind while he was on a mission, served to turn some positive attention his way and while this didn't meant he was suddenly the most loved person in town, it was at least enough to give Naruto hope that he wasn't doomed to be hated by the whole village.

* * *

The first stop Naruto made, while looking for his friends was the dango shop, and, thanks to his strange luck that seemed to come and go as pleased, he found Anko inside the shop getting her daily dango fix.

"Hello, Anko-neechan, how are you, this lovely morning?"

"What are you up to brat? Not only you're far too cheerful, but the real hour it's two in the afternoon in case you hadn't noticed" Anko answered back after eating some of her dango.

"You wound me, Anko-neechan, haven't you missed me at all?" Naruto asked while he placed a hand to his heart in an over dramatic gesture.

"What do you mean gone? Your clones had been bothering me all the time, it almost seemed that you where here all the time" Anko answered rolling her eyes and acting for the world like she didn't care one bit, which wasn't true one little bit, something Naruto knew and she knew, but to each his own "Whatever, now that you're back tell me about your mission"

And Naruto did, telling her everything (except about knowing Tai) he even explained what really happened with the Kyubbi and Naruto during the fight, he retold her his discussions with Kakashi, Haku, Tai and Kyubbi almost word for word and, by the time he was finished, he was pretty sure Anko was planning on committing a few murders.

"Right, that's it, you are not going back to your apartment, it isn't safe (or habitable), go talk with Gai and the others, while I go and have a 'little chat' with the Hokage and your sensei" For some reason, the way Anko said it, Naruto was sure that 'chatting' was the last thing in her mind, so, saying a quick goodbye, he headed to the training field where his other friends were training.

When Naruto made it to the training field that Gai used, he was happily welcomed back by three members of the team, and almost happily by the fourth, it occurred to Naruto that this was, probably, born from the fact that, since his clones couldn't risk getting hit and were, thus, unable to practice with the rest of the team, they passed most of the time doing everything in their powers to annoy Neji, causing him to felt somewhat relieved to get the original Naruto back.

Either way, Naruto was happy to retell his tale (while leaving the important bits out) to his amused audience, (including the couple of nearby hiding ninjas), he was even prepare for the twin explosions of the Konoha's green beasts; however he hadn't counted on Gai's calculating look, or the fact that almost as soon as he was finished with the story including the part about telling Anko just before them, Gai informed his team (including Naruto) that they should practice, while he took care of some business; at least that was the core of what he said, with many 'youthful' in the middle; and then Gai left, in the direction of the Hokage's tower (with most of the ninjas following behind, including a Naruto clone).

Left to their own devices, the group, being composed of serious genin, that actually took their training seriously, divided in their usual teams to practice until nightfall, with, Tenten throwing weapons at Neji, that he expertly avoided or disabled, and Lee and Naruto immediately engaging in a fierce taijutsu battle, all the members perfectly ignoring the spying ninjas and civilians in the nearby area, after all they were allies, and, more important, no one was going one hundred percent.

In the middle time, the Naruto-clone, that followed with the other Ninjas, was greatly enjoying the show; apparently Anko had somehow arrived in the middle of Kakashi's debriefing, saving her the trouble of having to track the copy-Ninja later on, and had basically proceeded to give, both ninjas, a piece of her mind for the way they were treating her little brother, and somehow, while this was going on, Gai arrived adding to the general screaming, leaving a dumbfound Hokage and generally adding to the enjoyment of the spectators, sadly at some point the Hokage got some of his bearings and used some sort of privacy jutsu, forcing the rest of the Ninjas to abandon the show.

Nonetheless, it wasn't much later, that a rookie chunin, made his way to the middle of the training ground where Naruto was currently training with the rest of team Gai, sorrowfully, the unlucky chunin, showed up just in the middle of a four way fight, where Naruto was using one of his wind techniques to disable Tenten weapons, creating an opening for Lee to attack her, while Neji was moving to intercept him, however long before any of this could happen, the chunin appeared, right in front of a very confused Naruto, receiving the major blow of his attack and leaving him open to all the deadly weapons, that where heading, dangerously fast, to his unprotected back, luckily for him, Lee and Naruto managed to get their bearings just in time to push him out of the way and intercept most of the projectiles, while Tenten, somehow was able to redirect the next rounds of attacks to Neji who block them all without much problems.

So, all in all, the chunin managed to made it out of the whole mess, with minimum scratching, however, it took, the poor guy, almost ten minutes to calm himself enough to relay his message (much to the amusement of all the present ninja), and a couple of extra minutes to escort Naruto to the Hokage (which was the message).

The Hokage it seemed was interested in hearing about the fight against Tai, from Naruto himself, something Naruto was happy to share, again, leaving all the Kyubbi said, I said, part, but making special mention of the way Tai kept comparing him to someone else, and even asking at loud who this mystery person was, something the Hokage completely disregarded, making Naruto pout in the inside of his mind.

Either way the Hokage explained that because Tai could try to get to him, and, his current apartment wasn't particularly safe, he needed to be moved to a more secured area, so he was going to get a new apartment at one of the central buildings that was generally used by ANBU and a couple of jounin, specially for the torture and Interrogation Force, which basically translated in he was going to be send to an ANBU guarded building next door to his older sister, something that made Naruto incredible happy, even if a little scared, and, he didn't bother to hide, the grateful and happy look he send on Anko's way.

However other than that, he wasn't told anything else about his would be murders, and was send home to pack and move to the new apartment, the Hokage, also didn't mention any special training, something which Naruto was sure he needed to survive and apparently Anko AND Gai agreed, if the looks they were sharing where anything to go by.


	10. Preparations

**A change in scenery**

**Chapter 9 – Preparations**

Overall, Naruto was happy with the outcome of his meeting with the Hokage, even if he was starting to wonder how far would he have to go to get information about his parents and some decent training (that he didn't had to find on his own), but, other than that, he was happy with the results of the reunion.

On one hand, he got a new apartment, twice the size of his old one, in a nicer part of the city and with much better neighbors, maybe it wasn't the Namikaze mansion but it was still a great improvement from his old place. For the other part, Gai and Anko were more than happy to fill in for Kakashi and the Hokage, once it became clear that no one else was planning on giving Naruto the training he, desperately, need it in order to survive.

That day, also had some lasting effects on his reputation among Ninjas and villagers (something his clones found out quickly).

Among the ninjas, the rumors of his fighting style and the fact he was apparently being chased by a group of missing ninjas, served to enhance his growing reputation, and made many of his more vocal detractors reconsider their positions, among the villagers the reactions to this pieces of information were extremely varied, some were willing to accept his improved appearance and strength, and some were even compassionate about his life being in danger, but many were still suspicious of his accomplishments. Despite that, it all increased Naruto's conviction that there was hope for his future, and that there were many things worth protecting in his home village.

The same night after meeting with the Hokage, Naruto arrived at his new home, feeling somewhat relieved that the old man actually like him enough to try and keep him alive, at the rate things were going he was starting to doubt he would.

Once the meeting was over, instead of heading for his old apartment, he headed to the ramen stand, because he was hungry and any important things he had, were already being carried by him, but mainly because he was hungry.

After trying and almost succeeding in eating his own weight in ramen, Naruto figured it was time to check his new home, so following the directions he had been given, he arrived into his new apartment, the place wasn't too big, but it was comfortable enough, there was a living room and a kitchen (that actually worked) two rooms, each with its own closet, a bathroom and another wardrobe, all in all, it was perfect for Naruto, even if he still missed the Namikaze mansion.

After settling in, and installing a few protection and security seals (just to be safe); Naruto was finally free to do what he had been wanting to do for a while: unpack all his new stuff, first thing were his clothes, he unsealed almost everything, except for one of his cloaks and a couple of outfits, he was gonna carry them around in case the one he was using got damaged.

The weapons were more tricky to organize, for one thing he had many, apparently when they were choosing what weapons to take they had gotten a little carried away and ended up picking more stuff than necessary, however seeing as Naruto still wasn't sure when he would get more decent weapons this might have been the best solution, but that still left him having to organize all his new weapons.

As far as shuriken and kunai went, Naruto decided to produce several sealing scrolls were he could keep all the extra ones safe and organized for future use, and take a little extra with him in case he needed them, Naruto wasn't too sure about the senbon needles, on one side he really liked this type of weapon, it was simple and deadly if used correctly (especially if helped by a little wind) the problem was exactly that: he couldn't use it correctly, at least not yet, a fact that worried Naruto since he wasn't too sure who would be willing to help him learnt the correct use, for now he would carry a small amount in case he figured a way to learnt how to use it, if worst come to worst he still had the scrolls Haku gave him and he could probably figured it out on his own.

The other type of weapons, smoke bombs, flash bombs, metal wires, special pills and a few makibishi, were mainly left in storage until he needed them, and only a few of each were meant to be taken on regular basis, finally he had some nice swords for his collection, strictly speaking he only had 3 katanas: the first one was a simple, traditional katana it didn't have any distinguishing traits, and that was the reason Naruto had chosen it.

The second one, Naruto wasn't too sure why he took that one, sure it was beautiful but definitely not his style, the blade of the sword wasn't too broad or too slim, however his more particular characteristic was the blue color that the blade took when the light reflected in it, other than that the handle was beautiful, made in some sort of white metal with carvings of dragons in it; the third and final sword was the one Naruto liked the most, it was black, Naruto wasn't too sure in what material it was made but the end result was a black sword, it was extremely slim and almost weightless, and Naruto loved it.

After that he only had a couple tanto (short swords) and a few daggers, since he didn't have any special training with swords (in this body) he chose to leave most of the swords in his apartment, and only take one sealed tanto, at least until he could convince someone to teach him how to use a sword…

With that part finally out of the way, he was about to get started on the ninja scrolls, when someone knocked on his door, and, just as Naruto decided to ignore whoever it was since he wasn't in the mood for visitors, a familiar voice demanded to be let inside, something which Naruto was quick to comply, after all his older sister wasn't exactly the patient type.

"So, what are you doing brat?"

"Hello to you too, Anko-neechan, I was just unpacking some of the stuff I got from my trip" Naruto answer honestly, since this was Anko.

"Ok, need any help, and by that I mean do you have anything interesting left to unpack"

"Yes, actually I was about to start checking the scrolls that Haku gave me, wanna help?"

"Sure" Answer Anko immediately, like Naruto knew she would since the only things she was really interested was pointy things and new techniques (and maybe dango), so with Anko's help he actually managed to organize his new scrolls, they were mainly divided in four categories: medical scrolls, taijutsu and physical training, kenjutsu and weapons and finally water and wind techniques, apparently because of Haku's bloodline he could use both water and wind with ease, something for which Naruto was grateful giving his own elemental inclination.

Anko was fairly impressed with all the scrolls Naruto had collected, finally the only scroll left was the Uzumaki scroll, something Naruto wasn't sure what to do about, on one hand he was dying to know what the scroll said, on the other hand only a blood relative could open the scroll, something Anko was sure to know, since many Konoha-nin had been informed of this by Kushina and passed on the information, so opening it with her present basically proved he was his mother's son, and was not just given the name… which could result in eventual complications.

However Naruto didn't wanted to hide more secrets, at least not from Anko, and, in the end, opening the scroll was his right, even if the Hokage wasn't ready to admit it, so steeling his resolve, he decided to open the damned scroll, and deal with the aftermath afterwards.

"So, Anko-neechan, there it's only one scroll left, but this one it's different…" Naruto finally explained after his internal debate.

"What do you mean Naruto, what is different about it?" Anko answer seriously, picking up Naruto's uncertainty.

"Well, for one thing Haku couldn't open it and it also has my family symbol in some sort of seal…"Naruto trailed off, noticing Anko's shocked expression, a part of him wanted to let it go…but he needed to let her know the truth, about this at least, "Anko, do you know what it is?"

"Naruto, that is an Uzumaki scroll, it is rare to come across one…the thing is you need to be an Uzumaki, to open the scroll so your friend couldn't open it…and you can't either"

"What do you mean? I'm not an Uzumaki?" Naruto asked hiding his relief, Anko wouldn't lie to him and for that he was grateful.

"Naruto, once Kyubbi was sealed in you, the Hokage and Kushina gave you that last name, and Kushina was even planning on raising you herself…but then, she became ill a few days later and eventually passed away, the Hokage honored her wishes and allowed you to keep the last name, and since there weren't any other Uzumaki's alive, as far as we know, nobody opposed it, but …"

This explanation brought real tears on Naruto's eyes, his mother had tried to protect him until the end, she was going to stay by his side even against the whole village…now more than ever he wanted to be known as a true Uzumaki.

"Anko, do you think there is a way she was my mother?"

Anko seem to struggle with a response, but finally she settled with the truth, or at least the truth as far as she knew "Well I don't see how, I mean you act like her as far as I know, and even your talent in Ninjutsu is like hers according to the rumors, but…I just don't want you to get any false hopes…"

But Naruto had heard enough "I'm gonna try to open the scroll. Either way, I'm still proud of my last name"

So Naruto took the scroll, bit his tomb and added some blood to the seal. For a second nothing happen, but then the seal shone brightly and then broke in half allowing the scroll to be open by his rightful owner, however even if Naruto was dying to check the scroll, at the moment he was more concerned by Anko's reaction, at first it was exactly like he expected: she seemed shock and surprised, then she look more confused than nothing and finally she just look angry, this last reaction confused Naruto greatly "Anko-neechan?" he asked letting all his confusion apparent in his tone.

"I'm sorry Naruto, but I just don't get it, if you were her son, which you absolutely are giving you could open that scroll, you shouldn't have been left to suffer, maybe the Uzumaki isn't the richest clan, but they certainly had more than enough money to give you a comfortable life, and more importantly they are a ninja clan, meaning you should had been training in your clan techniques since you were a small child, not left to your own devices, also Kushina was an ANBU and had many high positioned friends, you were never meant to suffer the life you have, I just don't understand why? The Hokage must have known, why didn't he tell us? It was easy enough to prove it, just a little of your blood and an Uzumaki scroll, I just don't…"

Whatever she was about to say was cut off by Naruto giving her a hug that forced all the breath out of her. Since Naruto had arrived at this dimension, a part of him was overwhelmed by the sense of loneliness, even once he had managed to get back some of his old friends, some part of him felt like he had lost something he couldn't get back, but sitting here listening to Anko rant about the injustice of it all, knowing she understood, because she had felt it, knowing she was angry on his behalf for something everyone else assumed he deserved, that part of him was finally starting to heal and, even if Anko didn't know it yet, she had just earned Naruto's complete trust.

About half an hour later, Naruto and Anko were back to their regular selves, having decided by mutual agreement to ignore their emotional outbursts since none of them were exactly big on emotional displays, and were finally satisfying their curiosity by reading the Uzumaki scroll, which included a couple of advanced fire and wind techniques and what seemed to be the first stages of an advanced technique, as far as they could tell, based on the first steps, this technique was meant to combine a sort of genjutsu and a physical anchor, allowing the user to create illusions with physical bodies, all in all an almost invincible technique if used correctly.

The problem was that you needed to learned many complicated techniques before being on a level capable of using the technique effectively and the technique wasn't complete, but even then some of the techniques you needed to learnt where exiting by themselves so Anko and Naruto weren't really to disappointed, of course Naruto couldn't help but feel a little annoyed, after all, even with all the techniques, none were nowhere near Naruto's current level…so, no new amazing arsenal for now.

Shortly after that Anko left for her own apartment, leaving behind firm instructions to met with her, Gai and his team at exactly 6 am, since they needed to design Naruto training regimen now that he was on the assassins hit list, and since he and the rest of team 7 had been given a couple of weeks to rest after the high ranked mission, it was the perfect time to begin the torture, I mean training.

* * *

The next morning when Naruto arrived at the training ground, he found an overly exited Lee, an apathetic Neji and a half sleep Tenten, only a few minutes later Gai and Anko arrived at the training grounds.

They had decided it was in the best interest of everybody, if not only Naruto was trained, but also the training of team Gai was increased accordingly, so they were going to develop a training regimen for the four genins.

Lee was obviously going to focus on taijutsu, however they were going to add to his training resistance and gravity seals (which Naruto 'learnt' to do in the mission) and weapons training, this last was added since he needed more than just physical combat an any chakra techniques were out, for obvious reasons, additional to all this, Lee was going to be put in many survival exercises designed by Anko. When they finished explaining his routine Lee's eyes seemed to be burning and Naruto was starting to wonder how they were supposed to survive this torture.

Tenten, was going to get special weapons training courtesy of Yugao Uzuki, an ANBU friend of Anko, however this wasn't all that she was getting, Anko and Gai where going to teach her a few ninjutsus that would be useful in case she was forced in a fight with someone with an advantage over her weapons, and she was also going to join Anko for a few training exercises.

Neji was difficult to decide, since, he didn't have a big jutsu repertory, preferring (like the rest of his clan) to focus on his Juken, however Gai and Anko agreed he needed more jutsus, especially considering that the use of weapons didn't exactly mixed with his taijutsu, however Neji refused to focus his attention in Jutsu training, so in the end they agreed to add resistance seals to help with his training, and a few survival exercises, not focusing much on the ninjutsu training… yet.

Naruto was the one expected to do the more, mainly because he was the one in more danger, but also because he was the one who wanted to learnt more stuff, since he wanted to learnt kenjutsu, he was going to train under Gekko Hayate, another of Anko's friends, for his ninjutsu he was mainly going to practice with Anko and Gai the techniques from Haku's scrolls, since he wanted to increase his control he needed special training so Gai was going to ask a few other Jounins for help and Anko was going to get him a few exercises used in ANBU, and, as soon as he improved enough, they were going to ask Kurenai for help with Naruto's genjutsu training; finally Anko was going to get him a few books about seals that Naruto could use to practice in his free time, or more likely his clones would do it since his schedule look incredible full.

For the next week the four genins adapted to their new training schedules (or more like suffered through them) and also during this time Naruto visited his personal demon a few times hoping to forced him to reveal any information, but even if the demon hadn't outright refused, he was extremely tight lipped, so, other than annoy the demon, Naruto hadn't made much progress.

The only other thing on his mind was the Neji situation, while normally he was happy to ignore the other genin attitude, lately he was getting tired of it, he knew that he was being incredibly unfair about it, not because Neji didn't behave like a pain in the ass, but because that wasn't the reason he was getting tired of his attitude, the real reason was that Naruto wanted his friend back, sure, Lee and Tenten were great, but Neji used to be one of his confidants, and Naruto desperately wanted him back, maybe that was the reason that on his free day, instead of, doing what a more sane person would do and, take a break, Naruto decided to go searching for Neji. He eventually found him in the middle of the forest, practicing with his Byakugan.

"What are you doing here?" Neji asked at once, with his usual arrogance and even a little annoyance

"Looking for you" Naruto stated simply with an easy smile knowing it would annoy the other genin

"Why?" Neji asked trying to keep his composure

"Because" Naruto stated again

"…"

"Go away" Neji finally said, once it became clear Naruto wasn't planning on moving or explaining his reasoning

"Don't wanna"

After waiting a couple of minutes for Naruto to comply or at least do something other than smile, Neji finally figure out that the only way Naruto was going to move away was if he forced him, and given the fact that he was getting tired of dealing with the annoying blond he was more than happy to comply, so adopting the normal Junken stance he attacked his fellow genin

"It's your destiny to lose today" Neji stated while sending a junken stroke to Naruto's right shoulder

"According to whom?" Naruto asked simply while dodging the strike and discreetly deactivating his resistance and gravity seals

"Your fate was written the day you were born"

"If that were true I wouldn't be here" 'In more ways that you know' Naruto added silently to himself

"Our future is already written, I was born as genius and a servant for the main house and you were born to be the dead last, fighting against fate is useless"

"Then why do you do it? I've never seen someone fight destiny more than you, trying to prove your worth, defeating the heiress of the main house over and over again… if you have really accepted your fate why do you do it? Why do you fight?"

"I-I'm not…you don't understand"

While this whole conversation was taking place, Naruto was simply dodging every single strike using his special shield and Neji was getting increasingly frustrated

"Fine, if is really your fate to defeat me…then prove it" Naruto finally agreed, taking hold of Neji's left wrist and using the momentum to throw him over his shoulder into a nearby tree, however Neji spun in the air and used the tree to change direction and aimed a strike to Naruto's chest and another to his arm, on the other hand Naruto used the time to create his double layer shield, giving him the advantage in speed, and the fight in general, since what the junken can't touch, it can't hurt and Neji didn't really use any different techniques (at least in this dimension).

With the additional speed Naruto had no problems dodging the Junken strikes, and taking advantage of his little knowledge about the Byakugan Naruto created a few shadow clones (among which the byakugan couldn't distinguish the original since the chakra was equally distributed) and that thanks to Naruto's particular style where even harder to destroy.

This forced Neji to try to hit multiple opponents, all of which were at least as fast as him, however, after a little while, Naruto and the clones got bored simple dodging and instead decided to attack, so they surround Neji and used a couple of kunai, and turned them in dozens thanks to the Shuriken Kage Bunshin no Jutsu, forcing a quickly panicking Neji to use a special technique that he hadn't quite mastered: Kaiten, which basically consisted in forcing chakra out of all the users chakra points while rotating, creating a shield of chakra.

This served to effectively block all the kunai, but given that he hadn't quite mastered the technique caused him to lose his balance and leave and opening for Naruto to attack using a mid powered Raiton: Jibashi, which basically sent an electric shock to the opponent, and finally defeated Neji.

All in all the combat wasn't particularly hard on Naruto, mainly due to the facts that Neji severely underestimated him; he had past experience fighting against Byakugan users and that Naruto had already mentally unbalanced Neji, even before the fight started, nevertheless a victory is a victory specially in the ninja world.

When Neji, finally, was in condition to speak and move again Naruto had already lost interest (which given his small attention span wasn't all that difficult) and was busy trying to master one of his new wind techniques with the help of a small army of clones, so Neji was forced to wait until he could regain the blonde's attention, finally after half an hour Naruto seemed to remember the other genin and left his clones practicing while he went to chat with Neji, this time instead of fighting Neji decided to explain his past to the blonde (something Naruto already knew but was willing to listen again).

Neji explained all about the seal in his forehead that basically marked him as a servant (read slave) of the Hyuga main family, and also about his past and how his father was killed instead of his uncle, simply because one was a member of the main family and the other wasn't, all the time Naruto simple listened quietly letting Neji rant and basically let it all out.

"You know, now that I think about it you and me are not so different, you told me your secrets would you like to hear some of mine?" Naruto asked once Neji was done explaining, and once Neji agreed, Naruto told him about his past, or more like the original Naruto past, he told him about the fourth, about the sealing of the kyubbi in a newborn baby (carefully avoiding any mention of his parents), about the village, about how he was treated, all the small injustices, and basically all about his own seal and his own 'fate', however all the while Naruto simply stared at the clouds and only when he was done did he dared to look as his fellow genin.

If Naruto was being honest he was scared, or more like terrified, he hadn't been planning to explain about Kyubbi but he was tired of carrying so many secrets and this was the only one he was willing to share, however forcing himself to look Neji in the eyes was harder than he thought it will be, because if he saw the same disgust that the rest of the village showed he wasn't sure of what he was going to do, when he was finally able to do it all he saw was understanding, not fear nor pity, simply understanding and that was all Naruto could had asked for.

"My seal make a servant in the eyes of the main house, yours made you a demon in the eyes of the village, neither is true, what I don't understand is why do you still try to protect them, why don't you hate them?"

"I could…it would be so simple, and yet it would be such a burden… I refuse to let them dictate who I should be, I'm not a demon or a monster, also, no matter what they think, I do love this place and many people in it, so instead of proving them right, I'll simply live as I like and try to protect them…maybe someday they'll understand, maybe not; that is their problem. I'll simply find my own destiny; I'll make my own fate; that is my way" Naruto answered honestly, dropping his mask and, unintentionally, gaining Neji's respect.

After that things settled for the genins of team Gai and Naruto, Neji was still a little distant and he still resented many of the members of the main house, but he lose the edge that seemed to make him a bastard, instead he started to show more of his true self and he dropped all the fate crap, he started to spend much of his free time with Naruto, even if the blonde still enjoyed to push his buttons.

Neji also agreed to focus on some ninjutsu training and somehow managed to convince Naruto to train with him regularly, something that wasn't really that hard since Neji was the perfect opponent for Naruto to train while improving his technique. Other than that the genins continued to suffer thought their training relatively unscratched.

* * *

While all of this was happening, the things with team 7 stayed pretty much the same. After the weeks of time down Naruto decided to give Kakashi a chance and went to the first meeting in person.

During the break Naruto knew that Kakashi was still training Sasuke and was trying to help him develop his sharingan, something Naruto secretly wish he didn't, not because he was worried about the thief–eye (which was the name Itachi had given to the sharingan in his own world) but because he knew once Sasuke actually gained the ability, he would become even more arrogant (if that was possible) and even more power obsess, but since Naruto wasn't the teacher he didn't felt like getting in the middle of that fight.

Sakura, apparently, was the only one who did nothing during the whole break.

Naruto's relationship with the other members of team 7, hadn't really improved either. Kakashi was still ignoring him most of the time, even if now Naruto knew the reason or at least part of the reason, something witch annoyed Naruto because Kakashi was supposed to be his sensei, but either way nothing much had changed between the two.

On the other hand his 'relationship' with the other two members of team 7 was actually worst than ever, apparently Sasuke couldn't handle the fact that the 'dead last' wasn't a complete loser, and had actually demanded a fight as soon as they returned, something that Naruto absolutely refused, he had no intention of becoming a rival for the obsessed Uchiha (Lee was one thing, but Sasuke was too much.) And Sakura was still a faithful fangirl, so Naruto tended to simply ignore anything she said or did.

So even if Naruto decided to attend the meeting in person, he wasn't really hoping for much…and he got exactly what he was hoping, Kakashi explained that they weren't going to take many missions instead focusing in individual training and that because Sasuke needed help to developed his bloodline, he was going to be focusing on his training. In the mid time Sakura and Naruto were going to work on improving their chakra control, because that was what they needed more work.

During the whole speech Naruto was busy resisting the urge to scream, he (due to his insane training) actually had good chakra control and absolutely better control than Sasuke; and Sakura actually had perfect chakra control, so there wasn't much they could improve with only tree climbing, so this training was basically useless.

As soon as he was capable of doing it without being detected, Naruto created a clone and headed to the Forest of Death, also known as Anko's favorite hide out, he needed to find his sister and destroy/kill/maim anything that get in his way in order to release some stress. Eventually he found Anko, who agreed that Kakashi was an idiot, and that this supposed training was bullshit, and basically ordered him to send a clone and focus his time on more productive things.

So after that day, Naruto simply send clones in his place to any team meeting without anyone noticing (except team Gai, Anko, Yugao, Hayate and a couple of ANBU, but they mostly keep it to themselves).

* * *

It was about a month in their new training regimen that team Gai got a C-ranked mission, this wasn't particularly strange since they had been taking missions like this for a while, however the problem came for the fact that Gai was needed in another mission and couldn't go with the rest of the team, but, since the mission wasn't very dangerous, it was decided to send the team without their sensei as long as they got a fourth member, which Lee quickly solved by basically kidnapping Naruto from the middle of the street and announcing he was the fourth member, and since Naruto's team wasn't really doing many missions, the Hokage wasn't present and hadn't given any specific instructions, nobody had any objections.

The mission was basically an escort mission, the genins were helping to guard a group of merchants until they reach a small village in the south of Konoha, the only real treat in the journey were a few bandits that were quickly dealt with, however the genins enjoyed the journey having developed a very close relationship in the last months.

The merchants were friendly and seemed to enjoy the company, so all in all it was a good mission or at least the first part was, once they arrived at their destination and rested for a little while, the four genins were ready to return to Konoha, which at ninja pace should only take a couple of days, however they were only going for a few hours when Naruto luck ran out.

They four genins were moving at a speed slightly higher than was strictly necessary, when Neji quickly signaled to the rest that they were being followed, immediately they increased their pace and started to prepare for battle just in case, however whoever was following them was still faster and was quickly gaining up on them, they were about to try for a mad dash when Neji noticed that there were ninjas ahead and some were approaching from the sides, which basically translated in the four genins were surrounded by unidentified ninjas, and were out of escaping routes so having no other choices the four prepared to fight

It was only seconds later that the ninjas became visible for all the genins, and when Naruto saw the leader he cursed loudly, and immediately ordered the other genins to deactivate their seals or any other weights and go all out all the time from the beginning, it spoke loudly of their relationship when all the other three did as told without any question.

'I'm sure there is some sort of curse on me, there is no other way I could actually bump in two of the seven assassins in less than two months…sigh…at least she is one of the weakest members, barely A-class…to bad we're just genins and she brought her own army…sometimes I hate my life… at least this time my team is made of competent people…now we only need a miracle, if only god didn't hate me'

While Naruto was going through his mental rant, he and the rest of the team formed a secure formation in the middle of the enemy ninjas, with Naruto facing the leader, Neji covering his back and Lee and Tenten in each side.

"Megumi Sado, the stone witch, missing nin from Iwa, to what do we owe the pleasure?" Naruto asked in a quiet but calm voice hoping to buy a little time.

Megumi was a tall woman dress mainly in black, she had a black blouse with long sleeves and a turtle neck, her pants were also black and over them she only wore a sort of light brown skirt that was cut in the sides giving her more freedom of movement, additionally she used some sort of protectors in her elbows and knees. She had black long curly hair and brown eyes, her only other distinguishable feature was a scar across her left cheek and the slashed headband of Iwa in her forehead, marking her as a missing nin.

"Oh, the little genin knows who I am, what an honor" Megumi replied in a mocking sing song voice "Not to fear little one, I'm only looking for someone who looks just like you. Isn't that funny?"

"And why are you looking for whoever it is?" Naruto asked getting ready to fight, knowing she wasn't going to give them any chance of escape.

"Well we have some friends in common…the problem is they want him dead just as much as I do, so I can let this chance pass, maybe I'll see you in the next life" And like that the fight started.

Tenten quickly combine a wind technique and her sealed weapons, making a lethal rain fall on the enemy ninja, and proceeded to draw her sword and charged at the enemy group in front of her; Lee used his new favorite weapon, three retractable blades concealed in his fists that combined with his taijutsu proved deadly to anyone in his way and Neji made use of his newly perfected kaiten, and his newly acquired jutsus to decimate the enemy. Luckily the enemy ninjas were of low class, unluckily there were many of them forcing the three genins to focused all the attention on them and leaving Naruto alone to face Megumi 'Why do I always end up facing the A-ranked enemy? Thank god I can use a sword this time'

In the last month Naruto pretty much focused the main part of his attention in his kenjutsu practice, for one simple reason: it was the better way to improve his style while genjutsu was still out of his league. Right now Naruto had his favorite blade: 'tsuki no nai ha' and, once he activated his shield, it could pretty much cut through steel.

Which was great since the stone which favorite weapon was rocks, giant rocks or spikes like the ones that were rising from the ground and trying to impale him thanks to her Doton: Doryuso, which were mostly meant to distract him enough in order for her to create a couple of mud clones armed with rock staffs that immediately engaged him in a close ranged fight while leaving her free to use long distance attacks like those stupid spikes and the rocks that he was barely managing to cut trough before they buried him alive.

As soon as Naruto could spare a second he created a couple of battle clones that immediately created small armies of their own, allowing the original Naruto to retain most of his chakra and letting him free to engage the original Megumi while his clones took care of her clones, however even on a one on one fight Megumi was still an A-ranked ninja and while Naruto had improved greatly since arriving in this world, he was still barely on high chunin/low jounin level, which was great for a genin but still left him the weaker of the two, on the other hand this wasn't the first time he was forced to face an opponent stronger than him.

Given the elemental Nature of his opponent attacks, Naruto was forced to rely heavily in his Raiton jutsus, and in a minor level on his wind jutsus since any water jutsus wouldn't do much good and the only fire jutsus strong enough to defeat this type of earth attacks were A or S level.

At close range Megumi relied mainly on her defensive jutsus, and used the rock staff and earth manipulation for any attack, however she was frighteningly good with that damn staff and Naruto only had a month of practice with his sword.

As soon as Naruto was in striking distance he sheathed his sword and used a Raiton: Gian Yari to basically fired a spear of lightning from its mouth, however Megumi used a mud wall to weaken the attack enough that it didn't caused a great deal of damage, and gave her and opening to strike with her spear that Naruto barely managed to avoid and only by using his sword was he capable of intercept the next strike.

Finally Naruto was forced to used a Fuuton: Daitoppa (blow a large blast of wind) in order to force Megumi to back away enough for him to create a few hurricanes using Fuuton: Kami Kaze and direct them towards her, however megumi managed to use a earth dome to render the attack useless and Naruto was forced to use one of his elder brother favorite techniques Raiton: Rai Ryouken to attack her before she could reform her defense, this time he managed to cause her some damage, but she used the staff to absorbed part of the damage leaving her capable of continuing the fight.

The problem for Naruto was that the only way for him to break through her defenses was to use high level jutsus, that he was nowhere near to master and the continued use of different ninjutsu elemental attacks was rapidly decreasing his chakra reserves, at this point his best choice was to retreat and hopefully regroup with the rest of his team.

While Naruto was fighting the stone witch; Neji, Lee and Tenten managed to kill, incapacitate or forced to escape the enemy nin, however much like Naruto this left their chakra reserves dangerously low and physically completely exhausted, so they could do nothing but watch Naruto fight while trying to regain enough chakra in order to aid him. All the clones were destroyed at some point or the other leaving in the battlefield only the four genin and the missing nin.

As soon as Naruto reunited with the rest of his team he knew the situation wasn't good, none of them had enough energy to even attempt to escape and fighting in their current condition was close to suicide, this left them with very little options and none of them seemed to involve all of them making it alive, something that Naruto wasn't willing to risk.

Eventually he came to the conclusion that his only real option was using the Kyubbi chakra, normally even two tails worth of power in his current body wouldn't be enough to win against a A-class enemy, simply because the demon chakra wasn't something Naruto could use at his full potential, essentially rendering most of his techniques useless and forcing him to relay on physical attacks only, the only reason he managed to resist against Tai was that the other man wasn't fighting seriously and Zabuza and Kakashi helped him before the situation was out of control.

However in this case he had already injured his opponent and he was pretty sure she didn't have much chakra left either. The only reason he was having second thoughts was because once he accessed Kyubbi's chakra he had to finish the fight, because he was pretty sure that as soon as he stop using Kyubbi's chakra his body wouldn't be able to fight the exhaustion, leaving him defenseless, and he couldn't use it for a long period of time without causing his body even greater damage, however this was still his best option, so all or nothing…

"Guys, I'm gonna try one last thing… if it doesn't work I won't be able to keep fighting afterwards, so use the time to regain some energy, if you think you can take her, do it; if not, get the hell out of here and don't look back" with that last explanation Naruto went into his mind looking for the giant furball, otherwise known as the king of demons

"Hey furball, are you watching this or are you sleeping while we're about to get killed"

"**We are nothing, brat! You're the one who always ends up almost getting killed by psycho strangers that pop out of nowhere! If I wasn't inside you, you'll be dead twice over!"**

"Yeah, yeah, whatever, did you listen to what I was thinking before I came here?"

"**Yes I did, annoying brat! If only I could get rid of you…whatever… the conditions are the same as the last time, you get two tails and I retain some control"**

"The conditions are the same in this end, except in this case letting her escape is not an option, she would only use the opportunity to attack once I'm weak again"

"**I agree"**

"Let's do this"

Once Naruto was out of his maze/mind, he experienced the same feeling that last time, more feral instincts coming to the front of his mind and adding an edge to his own thoughts, to an outside spectator he suddenly was surrounded by a red haze, his eyes changing to red and his teeth sharpening.

As soon as his transformation was complete Naruto-Kyubbi closed the distance with Megumi at an almost inhuman speed, using his newly acquired claws and his basic taijutsu to attack.

First Naruto-Kyubby try to slash Megumi with his claws, however she used her staff to intercept the attack breaking the staff in the process due to the demon chakra surrounding Naruto-Kyubbi, Naruto-Kyubby used his momentum to aim a kick to Megumi's neck, that she barely managed to avoid while trying to force a spike of earth to pierce Naruto, who continued to use his momentum to roll in the air and land at a safe distance, immediately using the impact to propel himself back to his opponent, this time aiming a punch to her stomach.

Megumi used the broken halves of her staff forming an X to stop the punch which gave her the opportunity to launch a kick to Naruto's head, however Naruto-Kyubbi managed to intercept the kick using her leg as a leverage for him to aim his own kick at her stomach, this time the kick connected breaking a couple of her ribs and throwing her into a tree, however she managed to use the second it took Naruo-Kyubbi to land, to use her Swamp of the Underworld.

Almost trapping Naruto-Kyubbi and forcing him to use his chakra to propel himself forward, this time using a spinning kick that Megumi avoided only for her to have to avoid Naruto-Kyubbi's claws since he kicked a tree with his other leg to give him enough speed to twist his body and attack her again.

This time Megumi was forced to go underground in order for her to take cover from the incoming attack, however the moment she reappeared she was forced to intercept a roundhouse kick with her arm, breaking her arm in the process, but, managing to send Naruto-Kyubbi into a tree which he used as a jumping board to attack her with a fist that she managed to avoid.

But before she managed to prepare a counterattack she had to dodge a kunai attack coming from the other direction courtesy of Tenten, and in order to avoid that she was forced to drop her defenses giving Naruto-Kyubbi an opening for him to use his claws damaging her right lung and her heart killing her instantly.

Almost as soon as the fight was over Kyubbi's chakra returned into Naruto's body, leaving him completely exhausted and barely conscious enough to hear Neji's voice telling him the fight was over and that they we're all fine, after that the welcomed relief of the darkness took him.

A change in scenery


	11. Raising the stakes

**A/N: **So sorry for the really long time between updates, but well you know how it is real life tends to get in the way and things just keep popping out… however as a special apology for the really looong wait I decided to give you three whole new chapters and a little extra ;P and I'm already half way through the next chapter so hopefully I'll update again really soon…

On another matter I'm still not too happy with my writing, the problem is that (like I've said before) english isn't my first language so it's really hard to fix my grammar and some spelling mistakes, some of you had suggested that I get a beta reader the problem is that I don't know how to go about getting one and I'm not really sure how it works so if you're interested or have some advice please PM me and let me know.

Thanks and now on with the story…

* * *

**A change in scenery**

**Chapter 10 – Raising the stakes **

The aftermath of the fight with the stone bitch wasn't nearly as dramatic as Naruto hoped it would be…Ok, maybe that was being incredible unfair, after all it's not every day that a group of genin managed to defeat an A-rank missing nin (at least is not supposed to be), so after making it to a nearby village, requesting help and more important escaping the Konoha's hospital, which was really the most difficult part…either way, by the time they made it to the Hokage's office to report the outcome of the mission, the rumor mile was already spreading the fact that a team of genin was capable of defeating a missing nin, a rumor that actually started thanks to one of Naruto's alter egos (kuro, the clone) because Naruto was curious to see what reaction he could get…and because he was bored…mainly because he was bored…whatever, the point is that as soon as a few curious ninjas heard the new rumor they headed to the Hokage's tower hoping to get any details about what really happen, and, once Anko and the newly arrived Gai were informed of what happened they immediately assumed (correctly) that this was somehow related to Naruto and were soon in the Hokage's office demanding an explanation.

Either way, once the four genin and the captain of the ANBU reinforcement team were finally able to give the report of the mission, they were joined not only by the Hokage, his two main advisors and Anko and Gai, but also by a few nearby spies, making Lee and Tenten highly nervous and forcing Neji and Naruto to explain most of the mission, the first because he was trained to keep his composure as a Hyuga, and the second because he was used to this (at least in his head) even if nobody else knew it, so the two genin gave their report of the successful escort mission (which nobody seemed to care about) and the eventual ambush by the stone witch, and the resulting fight.

All the time with Naruto trying to explain how he used the Kyubbi chakra without saying it out loud since two of the members of the team knew nothing about it (something he was planning to fix as soon as possible) luckily the Hokage understood the message and didn't pressed the subject.

At the end they all agreed to classify the defeat of Megumi as a A-ranked mission on top of the C-ranked mission they successfully completed and by the next day almost everybody in the village knew the story, all in all it was a great outcome, and the only reason Naruto wasn't as excited as the rest of the team was because, once again, nobody explained why they ended up fighting the missing nin in the first place.

Once the report was finished, Anko insisted they should get something to eat and celebrate the genin first successful A-rank mission, and because no one was willing to fight with her, they all headed to the ramen stand (since it was the only place where Naruto was sure he wasn't going to be mistreated since he wasn't in the mood to deal with annoying people), once they where half way through dinner, Naruto decided there was no time like the present to inform the rest of his friends about the Kyuubi and he was pleasantly surprised when, after they were done choking on their food, Lee and Tenten offered their support and assured him that they still saw him as Naruto, well Tenten did, Lee started shouting about the flames of youth and how awesome Naruto was, but either way the gist of it were the same, this time he wasn't so specific like with Neji and they couldn't understand it on the same level, but he was more than happy with their reactions. After that he spent the rest of dinner explaining exactly what happened in the mission with many more details.

Other that the unexpected revelations, the encounter had the effect of motivating the four genin even more, which given their already extreme training was hard to imagine but no one was complaining.

Also the villagers were starting to change their views of Naruto, well some were, as far as Naruto could tell those that seem to sympathize with him but weren't willing to stick their necks by being friendly with him before, were the first to drop their unfriendly attitude and were offering him some amount of respect, the ones who didn't seem to care either way were now at least giving him the benefit of the doubt and once he managed to prove them he wasn't dumb, useless or a power hungry demon, they usually accepted him without any problems, the other villagers still refused to give him even a chance but in general Naruto's life was becoming easier and his hopes for the future were getting bigger.

Naruto's situation with the Ninjas was a completely different story, once Anko figured out the truth about Naruto's parents, or at least half of it since Naruto still couldn't find a way of proving (without having to explain how he figured it out in the first place) that his father was Minato Namikaze… other than looking almost like a carbon copy of the fourth, but apparently that wasn't enough… either way, once Anko knew who was Naruto's mother and since she couldn't see any reason for keeping it a secret (and neither could Naruto for that matter) she decided it would be better if some people knew about it since they could help Naruto if there was ever any need.

So she started to discretely let some people know about it, at first not many where willing to believe it, however once some of them decided to simply put it to test and gave Naruto an Uzumaki scroll to open, which he was more than happy to do (proving that at the very least he was related to the Uzumaki clan), there weren't many more objections and the identity of Naruto's mother pretty soon became common knowledge among the ninjas, with a few exceptions that for one reason or other never heard the rumor. This 'discovery' coupled with his newest adventure basically changed the way that most of the ninjas viewed him and, other than a few exceptions, erased any misconception about him and the Kyubbi among the ninjas, making Naruto's life much more easier.

An interesting fact was that even if almost everybody in the village knew at least part of what happened during Naruto's last mission, his team somehow didn't heard anything about it. During the time of the mission Kakashi wasn't in the village so he didn't even knew Naruto was on a mission, Sasuke wasn't really a sociable person so he didn't heard any of the rumors and Sakura never really paid much attention to anything not related with Sasuke or from a book, so she was as oblivious as ever.

* * *

A few weeks after their mission Naruto received a strange package without a sender's address; now a normal person might have been worried about it, a normal ninja would have been concerned, Naruto being who he was immediately asked for Anko's help and made sure to check for poisons, traps, tracking devices or anything suspicious about the package, once they made sure the package was safe (a couple of hours later) Naruto finally opened the package (Anko left to find something fun after realizing nothing was going to go boom). Inside the package there was an Iwa Bingo book and a letter written in an elegant script:

_Dear genin-kun,_

_It's been such a long time since the last time we talked that I decided to give you something to let you know I haven't forgotten about you, we had such a lovely reunion the last time and you'll be happy to hear that all of my friends were highly interested in meeting you after hearing of how closely you resemble our dear all friend._

_Little old me, was happy to hear you've met one of my friends already and even managed to avoid death for a second time. Such a spirited little kid, I'm sure our next meeting would be a happy one…for me at least, until then make sure to stay in one piece it would be such a waste if we didn't met again. That brings me to my gift, you see little friend, apparently your fight with our mutual friend brought you some unexpected attention, you should be proud little genin but do keep out of dangerous fights I'm really looking forward to seeing you again._

_Until the day we meet again_

_Your friendly neighbor,_

_Tai Zera_

By the time Naruto was done reading the letter he was torn between worrying about meeting Tai or any of his friends again, and wondering if this Tai was even more insane that the one he used to know, after rereading the letter and confirming that Tai was apparently more insane than what Naruto had thought he was, Naruto got bored with thinking about it and decided to check what the hell was Tai talking about and how it was related to a Bingo book.

A couple of minutes later he was again torn, this time between cursing his luck or being happy about it, apparently a few of the ninjas Naruto and team Gai were forced to fight against in the last mission stayed long enough to see Megumi's defeat and reported back to Iwa and probably other interested parties, either way the point was that Naruto was now in the Bingo book, as a B-ranked nin but giving he had been a genin for the grand total of three months that was still impressive. After thinking about it for a while (another couple of minutes) he decided that being a genin and in a Bingo book was something worth celebrating, so, completely forgetting about Tai and the letter, he left in search of Anko to give her the good news.

* * *

A couple of months later Naruto was completely convinced that he had some sort of curse on him, probably from the whatever-it-was that put him in this world in the first place, and was seriously considering refusing to leave on any mission more dangerous than chasing Tora.

'Okay, that is probably being a little overdramatic, but, come on, this is getting ridiculous, the first time I was a genin everybody was always worrying because I was a little kid, and nothing happened until after I made it to chuunin, this time around there isn't anything to worry about, and, yet I still somehow always end up in this complicated missions that are way above what I should be doing…sigh…at least I can complain about being bored…much…'

After the stone witch mission, Naruto spend some time back in his training and hanging out with his friends, he even got to the point where he could start training in genjutsu with the help of Kurenai, however, after some time (two weeks) he grew bored of doing nothing else but training. Since his 'team' was still doing only a few D-ranked chores per week and Gai team was constantly doing missions. After thinking about it for a while (ten minutes), talking (*cough*bribing*cough*) a few of the ninjas that handled the paperwork and mission assignments and annoying the old man Hokage and Iruka-sensei until they gave in, Naruto was allowed to join other teams for missions. After that Naruto was sent in a few C-ranked missions, which somehow ended up becoming B or A ranked about half way into them, and that was the reason Naruto was convinced that someone up there had it in for him.

First Naruto was sent with team eight (sans Shino who was busy with some Clan related business) to the Land of Vegetables, they were simply escorting a group of merchants, however soon they discovered that one of the merchant was really the princess, and future daimyo, who was wearing a disguise because she was afraid of a possible attack by a group of ninja called the Janin, which proved to be a valid concern since they ended up being attacked either way, in the end they managed to get her safely to her destiny and after she was crowned daimyo, she offered to let Naruto stay, something he refused because he would get bored doing nothing, ultimately Naruto made a new friend and completed a B-ranked mission.

Then he was send to snow country, with Ino, Shikamaru and Asuma-sensei to protect some famous actress that was really the princess of the land of snow, which had been taken over by some rogue ninjas when she was little. Either way, they somehow ended up defeating the leader of the rogue ninjas and bringing spring to the snow country thanks to the newly reinstated princess. Afterwards Neji, Tenten and Naruto did a mission in Tea country which was supposed to be a simply escort mission and eventually led to the capture of Aoi Rokushō, a Konoha missing nin, and the recovery of the Raijin sword.

Anyways, Naruto was sure most genin weren't forced to constantly fight jounin level opponents; of course it didn't help that all of the missions were successful leaving him without much to complain about.

Ignoring the fact that any mission Naruto took ended up becoming some sort of highly complicated and profitable mission, the last few months had been great for Naruto. As far as training went, Naruto was finally capable of using genjutsu, something for which he was incredible grateful, for Naruto genjutsu was his primary fighting weapon and even if he still couldn't use it to its full potential it was gratifying knowing he at least could make it work.

Other than that Naruto spent most of his time working in his kenjutsu, taijutsu and mastering the techniques he already knew, so far he had put off focusing in learning new techniques until he feel confident in the ones he already knew and had time to practice some elemental manipulation… something nobody had suggested yet, which made perfect sense since a genin isn't suppose to be working on anything that advanced, but he was getting bored…

Naruto also decided to put his clones to good use and offer to do a few (dozens) D –rank chores, his only propose by doing all this was spending some time with the villagers and trying to improve his reputation…that and make some money…mainly the money…either way, that offer had the unusual effect of letting him know some of the members of the civilian council, and led to his investigations on how exactly Konoha was ruled, something he used to know but now he had to relearn…

In Naruto's original world he was encouraged (*cough*forced*cough*) since a small age to learn and relearn all the inner workings of the council politics, in Naruto's world basically the shinobi council, which was formed by the heads of the more important clans and the more influential shinobi (like the sannin or the Hokage's personal advisors) and was directed by the Hokage, was the one who dealt with any ninja affairs and any other international affair, basically they made any big decisions and any shinobi related decisions and the civilian council only dealt with some minor economy business and day to day decisions, either way they didn't hold much power since Konoha was a ninja village.

In this world things were very different, apparently once the fourth was killed the civilian council took the opportunity to involve themselves further in the shinobi business, making them almost as powerful as the shinobi council…something Naruto didn't entirely approve, because this was a ninja village and should be ruled by ninjas, simply because a civilian didn't understand all the details of a shinobi life.

However Naruto didn't have any real desire of getting involved in politics, and he would have been more than happy to let the matter rest if it weren't for his own survival instincts, in either world he was the heir of two clans, however in this world he was the only living member of both clans and his father wasn't alive which put him in an even more complicated position, on the other hand he was also the jinchuriki of the giant red furball (otherwise known as the Kyubbi) making him even a greater target…so one way or another he needed some kind of political backup.

Therefore Naruto decided to play nice and get to know a few of the clans heads and a few civilians, but decided to focus his attention on the Hokage's advisors…except Danzo, because the man freak him out and Naruto had no intention of getting involved with the old war hawk… not that Homura and Koharu where exactly nice, but he had learnt from experience how to deal with them and he didn't doubt they were trying to protect Konoha even if he didn't exactly approved of some of their actions, either way after two months the shinobi council opinion of Naruto was drastically changed, even if he wasn't the most liked person in the village the majority of the council was now of the opinion that he had the potential of becoming a good asset to Konoha.

On a more personal level, Naruto was taking advantage of his missions to get in contact with his fellow genin: he spent most of his time with team Gai and Neji was his best friend and mayor confidant, however due to his genjutsu training, Naruto also spent a fair amount of time with team 8: Kiba was fun and easy to annoy (something Naruto enjoyed), Shino was calm and difficult to upset (something Naruto took as a personal challenge) and Hinata was as nice as Naruto remember her, even if a lot more shyer, and Naruto enjoyed helping her to build her confidence or simply spending time with her. Team 10, was the one he knew the least, and most of the time he simply played a game of Shogi with Shikamaru or joined him watching clouds.

All in all Naruto was aware that he had a better relationship with any genin of any other team than with his own team, something that was starting to worry him, but he wasn't sure of how to fix.

As far as Naruto's relationship with his team went…well…there wasn't one.

Sasuke had finally developed his sharingan, and, as far as Naruto could tell, was obsessing with it completely dropping any other training, and even worst Kakashi was helping him along the way completely neglecting his other two students, something that upset Naruto greatly since he couldn't be sure of what Kakashi was thinking and let him missing his own older brother.

Sakura simply did what she was told (complaining all the way), never doing more than the necessary or trying to learn anything different, her skills were minimal at best and Naruto was sure she was the weakest of all the genin.

Normally Naruto would have been more than happy to help her if she would only acknowledge the fact that she needed help, but all the time she behaved like Naruto was beneath her, something he refused to put up with. This basically meant their relationship consisted on Sakura trying to bully Naruto, and Naruto refusing to admit she even existed.

Normally the relationship with his team wasn't one of Naruto's concerns (he hadn't even been to a meeting in person since the wave mission), however he was aware that the chunin exams were about to begin, and he was scared that his 'team' was going to be entered.

As far as Naruto was concerned being a chunin wasn't one of his first priorities, after all he was already a jounin (at least in his mind) and he wasn't so keen on having to deal with all the duties of a chunin for at least another year or so.

Thus he wasn't all that interested in the exam when he first heard about it (about a month before the nominations), he had even managed to forget all about it, until he was forcefully reminded, when Gai, Kurenai and even Asuma informed their teams they were going to be entered in the exam, which let him fearing for his fate…so Naruto decided the easiest way to calm himself was eavesdropping the meeting were the participants were going to be decided.

After spending almost 6 months improving his spying abilities, and exploring the Hokage tower since he was almost a baby (in both worlds), it wasn't particularly hard listening to the meeting without anyone noticing…the hard part was not falling asleep during the old man speech, or screaming at loud when Kakashi suggested his whole team 'I´m DOOM, why it's always me? Maybe I could quit, after all you need a 3 man cells…but that would be too suspicious…even for me…what should I do?...ugh? Why are they fighting now?'

While Naruto was busy getting lost in his mind… which might explain why his mind was a maze in the first place but he'll worry about it later…anyway, while he wasn't paying attention, Iruka interrupted the meeting to voice some of his concerns about the participation of the genin, carefully avoiding any mention of Naruto which surprised some of the occupants of the room…mainly Kakashi and the Hokage.

Naruto however simply suspected that Iruka wasn't really against his inclusion on the exams. You see Naruto and Iruka had developed a very close relationship after Naruto's graduation, at the beginning Naruto didn't really had anyone to rely on, and decided that spending some time with Iruka, who at least seem to acknowledge him, couldn't hurt, however after a couple of times it became clear that Iruka really cared about Naruto, so Naruto started to explain his training, his team, his missions and on and on… In the end Iruka was one of the more informed people in the comings and goings of Naruto.

All in all Naruto guessed Iruka actually wanted Naruto to participate in the chuunin selection exams 'which is nice and all, except that I DON'T wanna do it! This is so unfair. The original-Naruto would be elated of being included…so I can exactly claim I don't wanna do it…sigh…this is unfair' while Naruto was having his mental tantrum, the meeting was finished, the rookie teams were allowed to participate and Naruto decided to go sulk around the city.

* * *

Naruto was wandering around the village trying to come up with a good excuse for not entering the exams when he almost crashed with Konohamaru, who always proved a good distraction.

"Hey Kon, what are you doing?"

"Hey bro, are you free? Can you play ninja with us?" Konohamaru asked in a rush with his usual hyper activeness

"Sure, sure…got nothing better to do" Naruto answer calmly, completely ignoring the pink banshee that decided it was somehow her business how Naruto spent his free time 'What is she doing here anyway? I though she usually only stalked the Uchiha…maybe she got lost or something?...ugh, why is she so angry now?' when Naruto was busy in his head, Kon apparently said something to upset the banshee, I mean Sakura, because she started to chase him and threatening him, however before Naruto could stop her Konohamaru crashed into a weird guy, wearing make-up and the suna headband 'Probably here for the exams…'

"Hey, whoever you are, let him go" Naruto asked the make-up-wearing-guy that was about to punch Kon

"Why should I little leaf genin?"

"Well, for one he is the grandson of the Hokage and you're a guest so you shouldn't bother him, second that guy in the tree next to Sasuke seems pretty cross so you probably don't want to annoy him more, and third he is my little bro and if you don't let him go I'm going to kill you" Naruto answer back, listing the reason as if they were common sense…which to him they kind were, however as soon as he mentioned the guy in the tree the make-up guy started shaking and dropped Kon, who immediately went to hide behind Naruto.

'I wonder who that guy is? And why is the other guy so scared? And what the hell are their names this is getting confusing…And why is guy 1 wearing make-up and guy 2 has the kanji for love tattooed in his forehead? Oh and who is the girl?'

While Naruto was trying to figure out all this, guy 2 (also known as Gaara) finished threatening guy 1 (also known as Kankuro) and the suna team were about to leave before being rudely interrupted by the pink banshee demanding and explanation about their presence in the village, which Naruto decided to ignore in favor of getting lost in his thoughts (which to him was more interesting either way).

"Umm, can I ask you a question?" Naruto interrupted once the suna girl was done explaining that they were here for the chuunin exams not bothering to even pretend he was interested in that discussion.

"S-Sure I guess"

"Why is guy 1 wearing make-up?" Naruto asked her bluntly while pointing to Kankuro, which led to Kankuro start rambling about how it wasn't make-up, how it made him look good and how his name wasn't guy 1 …

"Yeah…whatever…my name is Naruto, what is your name?" Naruto asked the girl since she was the only one that hadn't been mentioned yet… completely ignoring Kankuro, Sakura and the staring contest between Sasuke and guy 2.

"M-my name is Temari, nice to meet you"

"So you're here for the exams. My team is also going to enter, it'll be fun seeing you there, good luck" Naruto said before walking away with Konohamaru and his friends, completely ignoring the rest of his team and the other two guys… at least on the outside… 'Well at least the exams won't be boring…there's something off about that Gaara…I guess this means I'm gonna have to take the exam…crap'

* * *

The next morning Naruto was planning to go to the team meeting since he was pretty sure they were going to get their applications for the exams, however Anko decided to give him some last minute training by dropping him in the middle of the forest of death, so one of his back up clones was forced to go to the meeting in his place while Naruto spend his time getting out of the forest and his clones decided to pack his things for the next day.

The day of the exams Naruto was patiently waiting for the rest of his team while checking any competition from the other villages, so far the Konoha and suna teams seemed to be the strongest, although there was something off about the sound teams and one of the grass teams, but he couldn't get a clear reading on them.

If Naruto was being honest his team was one of the weakest on the competition, team Gai was probably the strongest given all the extra training and their individual strengths, they also had the best teamwork as far as Naruto could tell; team 8 wasn't the strongest individually, however all of his members were strong and more importantly they worked well together; team 10 on the other hand was probably the weakest individually speaking, but, even if they fought all the time, they had an amazing team work; in the end team 7 had the worst teamwork and even if Naruto and even Sasuke were individually strong, Sakura was basically a dead weight…

By the time Sakura and Sasuke arrived, Naruto was lost in his musings about the other teams and he barely noticed when they entered the building, or when they started to fight with the chuunin (disguised as genin) guarding the wrong door, in fact he only reacted when one of the chuunin and Sasuke were about to get into a fight, so he intercepted the chuunin kick while Lee intercepted Sasuke's kick.

"Oh, Hi Lee, when did you get here?" Naruto asked casually while dropping the chuunin leg, never even acknowledging the shocked looks from his own team.

"We've been here from the beginning Naruto-kun, you're the one that wasn't paying attention" Tenten answered before Lee could get into a rant about the power of youth, much to Naruto's disappointment, however…

"Oh, Tenten-chan and Neji-kun are here too" Naruto stated cheerfully hoping to annoy Neji (which he accomplished without any problem) "So, you must be entering the exam" Naruto announced like it was an amazing discovery…

"Yes Naruto, we told you about it weeks ago" Neji answer through clenched teeth, knowing from experience that ignoring Naruto only made him worst.

"Reeaaaally? Well, we should get going before it gets late. See you" Naruto said while dragging away the rest of his team and completely ignoring the annoyed expression on Neji's face

However they only made it to the stairs before Lee interrupted them asking for a fight with Sasuke and expressing his unconditional love for Sakura, however before they could get started Naruto intervened and managed to convince Lee of postponing the fight until after the exams, so they headed to the exam room…again, only to be interrupted…again, this time by Kakashi, who was explaining how the test could only be taken by teams of tree, something that apparently they weren't supposed to know, once he was done with his speech (most of which Naruto ignored, wondering instead about why it wasn't common knowledge that the exam was taken in teams during the first two tests), they were finally allowed to enter the room with the other contestants.

As soon as they entered the room Sasuke was attacked by Ino (at least in Naruto's opinion) who ended up fighting with Sakura seconds later. While the two banshees were screaming, Naruto grew bored and went searching for something interesting in the room, so once he spotted Temari and her team, he decided to go and annoy the make-up wearing guy, completely forgetting about the rest of his team, and never noticing the other rookies.

Naruto only remembered about the other rookies when he heard his name being mentioned by some strange genin with silver hair and glasses, that for some reason immediately caused Naruto's instincts to kick in, however not knowing what was going on, he decided to approached them and figure out why they were mentioning him, so saying a cheerful goodbye to the blushing blond, the annoyed Kankuro and the slightly amused Gaara, he went to join the rest of his team.

"…Naruto Uzumaki. Mission history: D-ranked 15, C-ranked 1, B-ranked 2, A ranked 2. His sensei is Kakashi Hatake, he is pretty well balanced in taijutsu and ninjutsu and he is rumored to be pretty good at kenjutsu. This is his first time taking the exam but he is rumored to be one of the stronger contestants" The glasses guy was explaining when Naruto was approaching them, much to Naruto's annoyance 'How does he now all of this? And why is he telling everybody about it? ...the information isn't actualized, but he shouldn't know any of it to begin with'… "You shouldn't be surprised; most of the people here are top genin like Gaara and Naruto…" Glasses guy attempted to explain, but he was interrupted by certain blond before he got too far.

"Thanks for the compliments, but how did you get your information, genin-kun?" Naruto asked in his sweetest voice, coming behind the genin and scaring the crap out of them, but at the moment he was more interested in the strange genin who seemed to know about him and who couldn't completely hide his reactions to Naruto's arrival, however before Naruto could question the glasses-guy, the strange genin from sound decided to attack them, or more like they attacked the glasses-guy since Naruto simply got out of their way, however before the fight could get to bad, they were interrupted by the examiner of the first part: Ibiki Morino, who informed them that the first part was a paper test.

Once everyone was seated, with Naruto sitting next to Hinata, he started to explain the rules of the test, that were translated by Naruto into: 'You need to answer one question, any way you can, preferably by cheating and not getting caught, and you must make sure all of your team also answer at least one question. The last question is probably some kind of trap…' At some point during the explication, Naruto sensed some very weak killer intent, which gave him the idea of flooding the room with killer intent and scare the genin even further, something that caused some of the weaker ones to pass out and gave Naruto a good laugh, however he was forced to stop when Ibiki started to give him the evil eye.

The first question was a cryptogram, that Naruto answered in a couple of minutes and he didn't even bother reading anything else in his test, focusing instead on the other genin and how they were cheating, however a couple of minutes later he got bored and decided to sleep for a while.

Naruto was sleep for about half an hour before Hinata woke him up, telling him they were about to explain the 10 question, but Naruto was still half asleep while Ibiki explained about the rules of the 10 question…and almost fell asleep again waiting for the other teams to quit…'come on, hurry up, if you're scared by this then you better quit at once, this is getting boring'

Five minutes later, Naruto was almost asleep again but was interrupted again when Ibiki started to explain about the reasons for the test 'It's an impressive test; you have to cheat to answer the first 9 questions, showing how good you're at using your abilities without getting caught. For the tenth question, you have to take a personal risk in order to accomplish your mission…but mental torture isn't my thing (when I'm not the one doing the torturing), I wanna get some action!'


	12. Meeting old enemies

**A change in scenery**

**Chapter 11 – Meeting old enemies**

During the last few months when Naruto wasn't busy in some sort of complicated mission or some insane training, he spent his free time getting to know his friends, old and new.

He, or at least one of his clones, was always available for playing with Konohamaru, training or talking with Neji, shopping with Tenten, or any other activity his growing list of friends wanted to enjoy.

However because of whom Naruto really was (the son of the Hokage, a jounin and a Jinchuriki) even if no one knew the whole truth, Naruto was a little old for his years, though he didn't act like it most of the time, choosing instead to enjoy being immature and carefree (or at least as carefree as Naruto could be), still there was a part of Naruto that felt out of place with people his own age, so even if he enjoyed spending time with his friends he still needed to spend time with other older people… normally for Naruto this meant spending time with Itachi, Kakashi, his father or some other members of his 'family', however in this dimension his father was dead, Itachi was some sort of criminal, Kakashi was ignoring him for some reason Naruto still didn't completely understood and most of his family was either MIA or not close enough for comfort.

In the beginning the lack of familiar presences in his life was one of the hardest blows Naruto had to face when he arrived in this reality, this was especially aggravated because the people the original Naruto considered precious to him where people the newly arrived Naruto knew only in the passing: Sarutobi, or the third Hokage, was the more important person for the original-Naruto, however the new Naruto wasn't really that familiar with him, even if most of the members of his family had a close relationship with the old man Naruto only knew him a little and wasn't really that close to him, and, even if Iruka was probably the second closest thing the original-Naruto had to a real family, the new Naruto only knew him as a nice and friendly chunin…

All in all Naruto was completely confused about any personal relationships when he first arrived in this world.

Nevertheless, once it became clear most of the people he was used to relay on weren't available or interested in this reality, Naruto decided to give the other people a chance, this is what lead to the close relationship he developed with Iruka and the friendly one he enjoyed with the owner of the ramen stand and his daughter, the only reason he didn't included the Hokage in his newly growing relationships was because Naruto was hard pressed not thinking of his father in the old man's presence and, since no one was supposed to know who his father was, that usually made him uncomfortable, that and also there was a part of Naruto that couldn't help to get a little upset with the Hokage's decisions regarding the original-Naruto's life, most of which he wasn't supposed to know, understand and much least complain about.

Along the way Naruto also managed to develop close relationships with people he used to know, like Anko and even Gai, which helped him to adapt to this new world he was forced into.

So, even if Naruto spent a great amount of time with friends his own age, he also spent a lot of his time with his other friends, like Anko, Iruka, Gai and some of the others, however this brought some problems because most of them were not only older but higher ranked, which basically meant that Naruto sometimes overheard stuff he shouldn't…but, well he wasn't exactly complaining about it, either way, this (along with his constant spying) was the reason Naruto not only knew of the chuunin selection exams months before the other genin were informed but he also knew who the examiners and the test were (at least in general) even before he knew he was included in the exams.

So Naruto knew beforehand that the first part was a paper test with some hidden meaning, designed to test the spying abilities of the genin and more importantly how they handled themselves under pressure, this had the downside that Naruto was even more bored during the test than what he was already expecting.

Sure he didn't knew what the test was exactly, but since he already knew of the hidden meaning in it, it didn't took him long to figure out what he was supposed to do and once he did watching the other genin squirming in their seats got boring really fast, at least for him, so it was really no surprise he ended up falling sleep about ten minutes into the test.

The tenth question was a stroke of genius as far as Naruto was concerned, especially because he understood it better than most. At first glance the question was a simply test of courage, however it held a deeper meaning than that: if you choose to take the question you had to relay not only in yourself but also in the abilities of the rest of your team something any good team needed to do in order to succeed, but more importantly, at least for Naruto, taking the question meant risking your future, or in a real mission your safety, for the good of your team because quitting meant the rest of your team had to quit too, even if they didn't wanted to and basically give up the mission for a personal interest… Anyway the question was the real test, but even that wasn't enough to hold Naruto's interest for more than a few minutes…honestly Naruto just wanted Anko's test to begin, since he already knew it was her turn next and knowing her that meant it was going to be exciting…and dangerous, but honestly that just made Naruto happier.

* * *

About half way during Ibiki's explanation of the question 10, Naruto woke up from his boredom induced trance when he felt the familiar chakra signature approaching, and that was the only reason he didn't reacted (except for the involuntary grin spreading in his face) when Anko arrived, a few minutes later, charging through a close window scaring the crap out most of the genin, except team Gai that had already grown (mostly) used to her and Naruto's antics.

"54! Ibiki! you left 18 teams?" Anko complained as soon as she could take a look to the rest of the room (noticing in the process Naruto's animated expression and feeling almost sorry for some of the other genin), mostly just trying to annoy Ibiki and scare some genin.

After a couple other remarks and making sure to scare the genin even further she finally told them to follow her and wasn't in the least surprised when Naruto practically jumped from his seat in his eagerness to find something more interesting, figuring the poor kid most have been bored to death during the first test.

Naruto for his part was more than eager to get some action, and had already written his concerns about the glasses wearing genin in his test (along with some pictures to get Ibiki's attention) so he was planning on enjoying the rest of the test.

As soon as Naruto figured out where they were heading he had to fight the desire to laugh at loud 'the forest of death, must had figured this was where she was taking us'

While Naruto listened to the rules he was getting more and more exited, also, unintentionally, he was releasing some amount of killer intent as he imagined all the battles inside the forest, much to Anko's amusement and the other genin nervousness.

'So, we have 5 days in order to make it to the tower, mmm… more than enough time to get the other scroll and a few extras just to be on the safe side…' while Naruto was planning his future 'entertainment', all the genins were given an agreement form so in case of injury or death Konoha or Anko wouldn't be blamed, the small part of Naruto's brain that wasn't completely focused on his future 'fun' carefully read the contract and signed it once he made sure it was what they said it was.

As soon as they entered the forest Naruto used a distraction to get away from his team and created a battle clone to take his place, however he was attacked by some strange mask-wearing guy, whom Naruto defeated in seconds and after checking and making sure he didn't had a scroll, Naruto simply broke his leg making it impossible for him to continue the test (and by extension his team) in the mid time his clone reunited with his 'teammates' and they were all in their way.

A couple of hours later Naruto had already acquired 5 different scrolls: 2 earth scroll and 3 heaven scrolls, from some unexpected teams he didn't really knew, unknown to Naruto all the teams Naruto knew had already decided to avoid Naruto at all cost during this part of the test.

Anyhow Naruto was trying to decide if he should head back for his team or if he should try to undermine the competition a little further when one clone dispel itself to let Naruto know about an attack on his teammates: his main clone was separated from the rest of his team by a gust of wind, and attacked by a giant snake...a summoned giant snake… 'Damn, who the hell did I pissed off in my past life! I can believe my team was attacked by that bastard snake sannin… shit, I'm too far away from their location…I've got to hurry'

* * *

While Naruto was trying to catch up with his team, his main clone was already on his way to reunite with them after disposing of the conjured snake. The clone was honestly worried for the rest of the team…even if he didn't get along with them or even like them, he wasn't about to let the snake bastard kill them or slave them, either way he needed to hurry…even if he was only a clone, he could hopefully buy enough time for the real Naruto.

By the time Naruto's clone made it back to the rest of his team, he noticed that they seemed out of breath and already freaking out, normally he would have considered it weakness but given who their opponent was, he could give them a little break…'well, I would have freaked out too fighting someone as insane as Orochimaru the first time I was a genin… of course I was a little kid at that time…but still…' either way, when Naruto arrived Sasuke was trying to destroy a giant snake that Orochimaru was hiding inside off?… 'gross, I don't know what's worse seeing him coming out of a snake…or knowing he's probably wearing another person's body…that man is just too insane for my liking…'

"Prey should always be trying their best to run away in the presence of a predator" Orochimaru was saying (just as Naruto got into hearing distance) and at the same time moving up a tree trying to get into striking distance from Sasuke, however before he could get to far he was interrupted by a rain of weapons, that almost took his head off, courtesy of certain blond genin (or his clone more precisely), and interrupted him before he could attack Sasuke.

Afterwards Naruto's clone started to spew some nonsense hoping to stall enough for the real Naruto to get there, since there was only so much he could do without getting dispeled in the process. Either way the clone managed to divert the sannin's attention and Sasuke (apparently realizing he was completely out of his league) decided to give up the scroll, not that Naruto really cared since he had stolen the original before the test even started and the one Sasuke was carrying was nothing but an empty scroll.

However once Orochimaru (or whoever's face he was wearing in the moment) took the scroll he proceeded to burn it, without really paying it any attention, and decided to continue attacking Sasuke, forcing Naruto-clone to engage in combat, hopefully buying enough time for the real Naruto to arrive… and saving his teammates in the process.

Once the snake man jumped forward Naruto-clone jumped in front of him and tried to deliver a kick to his head, however Orochimaru easily dodged it using his strange flexibility technique and directing a kick of his own that the Naruto-clone was barely able to dodge in time, before being pushed to the side by a gust of air and forced into a nearby tree, luckily the short battle was enough to distract the snake man from the still petrified form of Sasuke.

However Orochimaru wasn't really that interested in playing games, at least with Naruto, and instead decided to summon one of his snake pets to deal with the blonde kid while he went back to playing with Sasuke who at some point during the short exchange between Naruto and Orochimaru had decided he was going to fight instead of running away, something that Naruto wasn't sure should be appalling or applauded.

Either way Sasuke used his sharingan and even if he didn't managed to make any real damage to the Sannin, he was apparently good enough to be judged worthy, something (that again) Naruto wasn't sure if he should be relieved or upset about, whichever way the snake sannin marked Sasuke with his strange hicky of doom or whatever.

Of course all these was observed by one of the weaker clones Naruto had left behind for recognizance proposes, which meant he wasn't more than cannon fodder in a fight against the sannin and was more useful hiding and waiting for the real Naruto to get there, while the battle clone was eventually dispelled fighting the summoned snake, leaving the other two at Orochimaru's mercies.

The reason there wasn't more back up was that Naruto was confident in not encountering any dangerous enemies in this test (after all there were only supposed to be hopefully chunin in this test), and even in case they were forced to fight a powerfully enemy he was kind of guessing they would only be interested in the scrolls and not on taking their lives… ok, if Naruto was being honest he was kind of excited of actually doing something fun at the beginning of this test and didn't considered the possibility of anything remotely resembling this to happen, but come on what were the probabilities of one of the sannin appearing in the middle of a chunin test and attacking a team of genin?

Either way the end result was that his team was pretty much on their own once the combat clone was destroyed… So by the time Naruto finally arrived Sasuke had already received his new hicky and the sannin was about to leave.

However once Naruto was into striking distance he used a fire technique on Orochimaru, while his spy clone dispersed himself to let him know what was going on, after checking to make sure his team was alive he created a small army of clones that immediately took the almost unconscious Sasuke and the mercifully quiet Sakura (due to the shock most likely) and headed for a safe place to rest.

At the same time Naruto engaged the Sannin in combat due to a small number of reasons, first he needed to make sure he wasn't going to follow his clones and the rest of his team, second he was hoping to buy enough time for any reinforcements to arrive and third he really didn't liked the snake sannin… Luckily for Naruto the sannin couldn't really use his full force without attracting unwanted attention so it was pretty much and even field.

After 15 minutes into the fight Anko finally made her appearance, this was lucky and unlucky in itself, on one hand Naruto was only 13 and this fight was already taxing his strength so any backup was welcomed, but on the other hand Anko was at a clear disadvantage in a fight with the snake sannin due to her cursed seal, this was demonstrated minutes after she arrived when he used her seal to incapacitate her which forced Naruto into a defensive position.

Fortunately Neji's team had apparently noticed the fight and had decided to come and give a hand to Naruto and Anko, which in turn forced the Sannin to escape, since even if he still had the advantage against them and almost an assured win, they were sufficient to delay him enough for the rest of the back up to arrive which wasn't something he wanted to deal with.

Once Orochimaru disappeared in the forest the four friends decided it was safer to stay with Anko while they waited for help, particularly since she seemed in a bad state due to her cursed seal and leaving her alone in the middle of a forest full of dangerous creatures in her condition wasn't really something they were willing to consider, especially since the other option was following a S rank missing ninja.

All the time Naruto was wondering what he should do about the seal, to be perfectly honest he couldn't do much about it, his father had been working on a way to remove it for a couple of years before this whole dimensional mess started and Naruto had seen most of the research on the subject but without the specification of how the cursed seal was created and applied there was only so much they could do, and either way Naruto wasn't exactly ready to try anything that big on his own so complete removal wasn't an option.

But Naruto was still a seal expert, perhaps not yet a master but close to it, and the idea of waiting around while his sister was in pain was something that he wasn't willing to do, frankly if he had known that her cursed seal wasn't completely sealed away he would had done it before, however he had simply assumed that Jiraiya had done the sealing instead of his father and left it at that, but now it seemed that wasn't the case.

However a complete sealing was a long and hard process and not something he could do in the middle of the forest even if he was confident enough to try it, which he wasn't, but there were other options…

"Anko-neechan, I know a temporal seal that should help you control the cursed seal for a while, should I give it a try?" Naruto asked her after deciding it was his best option, it wasn't much but it should help for a while.

"Are you sure?" Anko asked and immediately agreed when Naruto nodded.

Naruto drew a few symbols in her neck and used a few quick hand seals to activate them, the seal he was using was a two element seal of water and wind, and basically acted as an ice cage to the chakra it sealed away, freezing it and nullifying its effects, however it only lasted for a few hours before it started to 'melt' away, once the process was completed the only evidence of its use was the small pattern surrounding each of the three tomoe of the cursed seal.

Almost immediately after the seal was finished Anko's condition improved, and by the time the two ANBU arrived she was almost back to normal, after explaining the situation briefly and a small argument about whether the exams should be canceled or not, they decided to head back to the tower, and Anko asked Naruto and Neji if they wanted keep competing or quit and head with them for the tower.

Naruto was severely tempted to quit then and there, after all no one would blame him after fighting with one of the sannin and he wasn't really interested in becoming chunin…but he was interested in that Gaara kid from suna… besides he already had the scrolls…yep, it was only because quitting after all this would be troublesome, it had nothing to do with the suna kid…

"Nah, don't worry we already have our scrolls so we should be heading for the tower soon anyway" Naruto answered before Neji had the chance, completely ignoring whatever the other was about to say, mainly because at some point he had decided he wasn't willing to stay alone with his team and his original plan of leaving them with a clone had already proved too dangerous, so, like it or not, team Gai was going to stay with him.

"Ok, if you're sure brat, see you in the tower" Anko exclaimed heading with the ANBU for the tower.

"Naruto, who said we already had the two scrolls?" Neji asked with a scowl and a voice that suggested he was already developing a headache.

"I did" Naruto answered cheerfully not bothering to explain.

"But we don't have both scrolls yet, Naruto-kun" Tenten answered quickly trying to avoid, or at least delay, a fight between the other two.

"Oh, that's too bad" Naruto exclaimed cheerfully knowing full well that Neji was close too snapping "I guess I could give you one scroll if you promise to stay with me until we arrive at the tower…please, pretty please?" Naruto asked giving them his best puppy dog eyes look.

"Why do you need us to stay with you Naruto?" Neji asked while massaging his temples and fighting a losing battle with his patience.

"Umm … because I don't wanna be alone with my team?" Naruto answered hopefully.

"Sigh, fine we'll stay with you"

* * *

The two teams arrived to the tower in little over an hour, it would have been quicker but Sasuke was unconscious and Sakura was slow, either way in total it took them a little over six hours to reach the tower, leaving them with ample time to relax before the rest of the test, or in Naruto case enough time to investigate what the hell was going on and bother the other genin…mainly bother the other genin.

When they entered the tower they found an empty room with only a poem in a wall. Neji read the poem once (Naruto couldn't be bothered to do it) and instructed them to open the scrolls, something Naruto and Tenten did at once, trusting him to know what he was saying, and Naruto immediately throw them away with Tenten following seconds behind, both of them easily recognizing a summoning when they saw it.

When the smoke cleared away they were greeted by Iruka and a chunin that Naruto didn't really knew or cared much about.

After explaining them the situation Sasuke and his loyal groupie (also known as Sakura) were taken to the hospital rooms and Naruto and Neji's team were taken to the Hokage to explained what happened, which didn't take two long since Anko was already there so they only needed to add to her story and Naruto had to explain what he had done to the cursed seal and why hadn't he done the same to the one on the Uchiha.

Which wasn't too hard to explain since many people knew he was studying seals and since Sasuke's seal didn't seemed to be stable enough he didn't dare to use another seal on him or at least that was his excuse and he was sticking to it. In truth he simply didn't want to waste his time on someone who wasn't going to fight with all his strength and Naruto was sure Sasuke wasn't going to fight against the seal making anything he did an extremely short temporary measure at best , so why bother?

After the meeting they were escorted back to the sleeping quarters and shown around the training rooms and dining area by a woman who seemed to be their guide "The rooms are designed for three people so you would have to share, whether with your teammates or not it is entirely up to you"

Since there were 4 people, and probably Sakura once she was kicked out of the hospital rooms, they decided it was probably for the best if they divided in pairs in two rooms and Sakura chose were she wanted to stay, this was after Naruto practically threatened to chained himself to Neji when they suggested to divide by teams, so obviously Neji and Naruto would be sharing one room and Tenten and Lee another one.

The following days where spend with Sakura refusing to leave Sasuke's side (even after he woke up), the rest of the genin training or resting, and Naruto and his clones mysteriously disappearing at odd times (spying on the rest of the genin, the jounin or just chatting up with Anko who didn't seemed to mind he wasn't supposed to be there), training with almost everybody available, and some of them bothering the other teams that arrived, specially the suna team, who apparently was the first to arrive.

By the time the week was over, Naruto had learned that Kabuto and the team of sound smelled like snakes when they arrived (something he had already told Anko), that the suna team were the sons and daughter of the Kazekage and that the two older ones were terrified of their younger brother who smelled like sand and blood, something that he was eventually capable of explaining after he remembered an odd rumor about the sand jinchuriki, but since he didn't had any proof of his conclusions he could only share them with Anko and let her handle the rest while he investigated some more.

* * *

"First off for the second test, congratulations to all of you for passing" The Hokage spoke up, pipe in hand while standing between many jounin and chunin, including the examiners and the teachers of every team that passed the second test. In total there were seven teams five from leaf, one from suna and the last one from sound.

After the Hokage was done with the introductions he started to explain something about the reasons for the exam, not that Naruto listened to anything he was saying, he almost immediately tuned him out, focusing instead of his theories about the sudden reappearance of the snake sannin and his possible connections with the other strange happenings like the suna kid and the glasses guy.

It wasn't until Gaara interrupted the Old man that Naruto remembered he was supposed to pay attention instead of daydreaming and managed to zoom in to the explanation that Hayate was giving about the preliminaries. Apparently they needed to reduce the number of contestants for the third exam, so they needed to have preliminaries fights, Kabuto decided to retire from the exams claiming he was to injured to continue, something that Naruto doubted, but since he had already done everything he could think of to cast suspicion on the other genin, he decided to let it pass for now, although he wasn't above sending one of his clones to spy on him.

**(A/N: Most of the fights are similar to canon so I won't go into many details)**

The first fight was some guy from Kabuto's team and Sasuke, which didn't surprised Naruto in the slightest since they were probably trying to get Sasuke's fight out of the way in order to initiate the sealing process since it would probably let him weak for a while; the fight wasn't particularly impressive and Sasuke eventually managed to win using mostly taijutsu due to his seal.

The next fight was Shino vs Ino, which wasn't much of a fight since Ino didn't had any particular abilities other than her clan's jutsu, and even that wasn't particularly strong. Basically Ino tried to take control of Shino, which Naruto thought was a stupid move in more ways than one: using it against anyone while she was alone and her attack only moved on a straight line left her open for a counterattack if it was dodged, which was more than likely given her current level, but using it against an Aburame was basically suicide since their connection with the bugs made them almost invulnerable to mental attacks. Either way once she used her mind control technique Shino used her distraction to drain her with his bugs and the fight was quickly over.

Next was Kankuro (make-up guy) and the other member of Kabuto team, the fight was completely one sided and Kankuro won without any problems, taking advantage of his puppet and basically rendering the other guy stretching ability useless.

So far all the fights were somewhat boring and Naruto had a clone watching the fights while he experimented with one of the seals he was working on, however Naruto was forced to pay attention to the next fight since it was Sakura against Hinata.

This fight was important because he had decided that Hinata should win it, on one side he refused to let Hinata lose due to her lack of confidence, and on the other there was no way that Sakura could be allowed to advance to the next round after all that would be completely humiliating for Konoha; luckily Hinata had improved in the last months unlike Sakura who hadn't really done much of anything, so even with Hinata's nervousness she was easily able to defeat Sakura who apparently even after six months was still unable to use anything other than the three academy basic techniques, and her sloppy taijutsu style which was slow even by the academy standards. So, basically Sakura charged using the normal bunshin that was useless against the byakugan, was immediately immobilized by a couple of junken strikes to her arms, and after a few moments was completely defeated by Hinata who was still only half trying.

Next in line was Tenten vs Temari, which ended up being a great fight, mainly because Tenten recent training and numerous hours of practice against Naruto and his wind techniques, which made it much harder for Temari, who was also a wind specialist, to defeat Tenten. In the end it was only superior stamina which allowed Temari to win the fight, but the battle was nevertheless impressive.

The next fight wasn't nearly as exciting, Shikamaru easily defeated Kin, the female member of the sound team, using his Shadow imitation jutsu and careful planning, without revealing much of anything.

Finally it was Naruto's turn (luckily since he was starting to get bored waiting for his fight) his opponent was Kiba, who didn't looked nearly as confident as most people assumed he would, of course those people hadn't spent the last few months training next to Naruto and watching him practically absorb knowledge like a sponge, those people haven't seen Naruto defeat powerful enemies with relative ease, hadn't been defeated on numerous occasions by Naruto's special Taijutsu style, that Kiba was pretty sure was designed (at least in part) with the sole objective of rendering his opponents almost crazy…all in all, Kiba decided he was allowed to feel upset about his opponent, who seemed entirely to cheerful to be fighting against him.

"Hey Kiba this is great don't you think, I was starting to get bored waiting for my turn, but at least this fight should be fun, don't you think?" Naruto asked while grinning like an idiot hoping to annoy Kiba which was one of his hobbies.

Instead of answering Kiba was busy trying with all his might to remain calm, since he knew from previous experience that not doing so will only please Naruto and lose him the fight. Also from previous experience he knew that underestimating Naruto was fatal and most of the times embarrassing so he was planning to go all out from the beginning.

"Please begin" almost as soon as the judge finished speaking Kiba immediately gave Akamaru a soldier pill and took one himself initiating his 'Beast human bunshin' and immediately afterwards he initiated the piercing fang (gatsuga) which resembled a human drill and was normally highly effective, that is unless you're fighting Naruto or Lee who specialize in speed and are almost impossible to hit. In total they spent several minutes trying to hit Naruto while Naruto seemed to almost teleport from one place to the next, always avoiding the attack in the last second possible and never seeming to move, and Kiba growing more and more annoyed, especially since Naruto didn't seemed in the least faced by his speed and seemed to enjoy taunting him all the time.

Eventually Kiba was starting to lose his focus and decreased his speed, which ultimately let an opening for Naruto who managed to grab Kiba's and akamaru's arms and using the rotation of their technique sent them flying to different walls. Almost immediately creating a battle clone that took care of Akamaru while Naruto focused on the real Kiba using one of his wind techniques to knock him out relatively easily, all in all it wasn't a particularly difficult fight, but Naruto was pleased with it.

Most of Konoha's teams, jounin, chunin and even some of the visiting teams weren't particularly surprised by the result, having spent enough time around Naruto to recognize his real strength, the more surprised ones were the rest of his team and the Hokage, who apparently hadn't realized just how strong Naruto was, which didn't surprised Naruto in the least.

The remaining fights were extremely short and mostly one sided, Neji's opponent was some guy from sound named Zaku, who apparently used some holes in the palms of his hands to shoot a sort of air bullet, not that it made any difference since Neji was perfectly capable of seeing what they did, and used his junken to disable them before he could do much and ended the fight without any problem.

Unluckily for Sound the last one of his team, Dozu, was faced against Gaara who ended the fight seconds after it started by using his sand to kill his opponent, with a dessert coffin, not even letting the other guy use one attack, apparently Naruto wasn't the only one who was felling restless waiting for his turn.

The last combat was equally one sided to the majority, with Chouji using his meat Tank and Lee knocking him unconscious after a few hits. In the end Naruto was happy that the preliminaries were over and the chances for a 'fun' fight were very high, and he was entirely convinced that the entire thing was set up from the beginning, since that was the only explanation he could come up for the whole one sided fights, what annoyed him was that someone (probably the Hokage) was severely underestimating him and Tenten.

* * *

After the fights were over the Old Man started with one of his speeches while Naruto contemplated the best way to take revenge on the Hokage for thinking so little of him, which might explain why he only reacted when Anko ordered him to take one of the papers from the box she was holding and pretend he knew what it meant, which he immediately did since it didn't seemed to be the best moment to annoy her, maybe later.

When Naruto looked at the paper in his hand it had a number one, which meant absolutely nothing to him, but he was sure someone would explain what it was so he didn't bother to worry about it, eventually they were informed they were having some sort of tournament or something like that, which pleased Naruto immensely since it meant he was going to have some great fights and there wasn't a high chance he would become chunin, if it came to that he could throw the last fight, or at least that was his plan until they were informed that it didn't matter who won, just how they fought…but because of his inner demon Naruto was pretty sure there wasn't a high chance he would become a chunin either way, at least he hoped so, because he wasn't planning on holding back.

The draws for the tournament were like this:

Naruto – Temari

Gaara – Sasuke

Hinata – Kankuro

Shikamaru – Shino

Lee - Neji

With the first three fights in one block and the other two in the other, which mean that there would be an extra fight between the winners of the first and second battle before the semifinals, something that thrilled Naruto since he was more than likely to face Gaara before too long, although according to Neji he would have to wait a month before the fights, but that would give him time to come up with a few ways of neutralizing Temari's fan and Gaara's sand (he wasn't really expecting Sasuke to win, but he already had experience against the thief-eyes so he wasn't very worried if he did).


	13. Just like home

**A change in scenery**

**Chapter 12 – Just like home**

After all that had happened with his team since he joined it, Naruto didn't even bother to ask Kakashi for help with his training, to be completely truthful the idea never crossed his mind, so he didn't looked for Kakashi in the hospital, nor did he had any clue he was there, he wasn't informed that Ebisu was supposed to help with his training, he had no clue that Kakashi was starting to worry about him and actually wanted to talk to him after his fight, and given his current sentiments regarding his team he wasn't even sure if he would have cared.

But either way instead of looking for Kakashi, Naruto was wandering around trying to decide what to do for his training and waiting for Anko to finish whatever she was doing with the Hokage, given this facts it was easy to understand why Naruto was so shocked, when he found a familiar figure spying in the hot springs, that he completely forgot he wasn't supposed to know the man.

When Naruto first arrived to this different dimension, he had trouble not reacting to people and places like he was used too, which was the reason that meting Kakashi for the first time was so hard on him, however the problem wasn't so difficult given that his more precious persons weren't really there, other than Kakashi, whom, given his behavior, was almost always easy to distinguish from the one he used to know.

Eventually Naruto started to settle in his new reality, and developed new and old relationships, that made it easier for him to adapt and finally he started to drop his guard, since there wasn't many people around to whom he couldn't react like he wanted.

All this coupled with the element of surprise, might explain why, instead of a normal response like introducing himself to the man or even accusing him of spying at the woman's bath, he immediately grabbed him in a bear hug while babbling about how much he missed him, and his father, and his brothers, and Tsunade and Shizune, and almost every one he used to know, later, once he had time to think about it, Naruto was pretty sure the only reason he wasn't beaten by the sannin was because he was in shock from the unexpected hug and Naruto wasn't exactly posing any form of threat to the man.

Luckily for Naruto he managed to get his thoughts in order before the sannin was capable of reacting, giving him time to back away before the other one decided to attack.

"Ahh…sorry, I thought you were someone else?" Naruto half stated half asked, hoping that Jiraiya would buy his excuses like everyone else did; unluckily for him Jiraiya wasn't buying it.

"You better come up with a better explanation quickly or…"

"Ok, ok…but I can really explain here, can we go somewhere more private?" Naruto asked in a voice that suggested the only reason he wasn't whining like a little kid was because he was too proud to do it or because he wasn't very familiar with the other man, mainly the latter.

Jiraiya who was pretty good at reading people and who had previous experience dealing with troublesome blonds decided to please the kid instead of getting into a pointless argument that he would probably lose anyway if the boy was as stubborn as his father, so in the interest of moving things along and finding out what the hell was going on he took the boy to a training ground that was usually empty due to the distance from the village.

During all of this Naruto was desperately trying to come up with a good excuse that didn't sound too suspicious or to insane, and was drawing a completely blank. So far the best he could think of was a mix between blaming the Kyubbi, pretending he had figured out most of the things he knew by himself… somehow (that part wasn't exactly clear yet), playing innocent and mainly just winging it.

Which might have worked (we will never know for sure) if it wasn't for the fact that when he opened his mouth that wasn't exactly what came up.

Naruto was almost sure that he wasn't guilty of what happened, after all it wasn't yet a whole week since he was forced to fight against Orochimaru and spent a huge amount of time (in his opinion) with his team, then there was the whole waiting for his turn in the preliminaries, which let him felling antsy and then the whole time he was also trying to figure out what was the secret of the sand team, the glasses guy, the return of the snake sannin and most important how to fight all out and still NOT become a chunin, and to top it all he randomly ended up finding the toad sage when he wasn't looking, after spending months trying to find him without any results, so yeah maybe he was a little stressed at the moment.

Either way Naruto thought it was completely understandable that he ended up blurting the whole truth to his godparent, what he couldn't figure out was why didn't he stop after the first line and why did ero-sennin listened to everything he said without freaking out or calling for ANBU.

"I think in order for you to understand we need to start from the beginning…" Naruto said in an unusual serious voice that he usually reserved for life and death situations "I was born almost thirteen years ago, my father was Minato Namikaze and my mother was Kushina Uzumaki, I don't know much about my mother since she died a few weeks after I was born, however I was raised by my father, my godfather, my aunt Tsunade and many other people so I never felt particularly alone. My dad was the Hokage of the village so he was immensely respected and as a result so was I, however I soon proved that I was a genius and was granted respect by my own right…" Naruto told him everything about his infancy and gave a detailed recount of any important things before the Kyubbi attack.

"We received news of the attack a couple of days before it happened and my father eventually come up with the plan of sealing the demon into a newborn, the only problem was that the only seal strong enough required the one doing the sealing to sacrifice his life, and my dad decided he was the one that had to do the sealing process. The Sandaime, Kakashi-niisan, you and even I, tried to convince him otherwise but he didn't listened and finally the Kyubbi was almost in the village and we needed to do something, anything. But I wouldn't let my father kill himself, I couldn't, so I did the sealing instead and sealed the demon in a beautiful baby girl, I was successful and I was supposed to die, I think I did…" Naruto trailed off trying to figure out a way to explain what happened next.

"BUT then a stupid voice or whatever-it-was decided I couldn't die for some reason or another and sent me here without even asking my opinion, or even explaining what was happening, and then I woke up in the middle of the forest with the forbidden scroll and no idea where I was or why was I there and then…" This time Naruto wasn't really explaining as much as he was ranting about everything that happened, which was strangely relaxing and probably a little scary for any spectators but who cares, it made him feel a little better.

"So basically I became the container of fuzzy, the dead last and a pariah, and then I was put into a team with the emo-teme and his fan girl, and a poor imitation of the Kakashi I knew, who basically just ignored me all the time, then I was attacked by a group of insane ninjas from stone, that I had already defeated once, and then Orochimaru appeared, and there is this strange genin who knows all sort of things he shouldn't and a strange team from sand that is hiding something and I don't even wanna be a chunin and I'm pretty sure I'm cursed or something…" It took almost one hour before Naruto was calm enough to reassume his conversation with the sannin, mainly because at some point during his ranting he had completely forgotten that there was anyone nearby.

"Are you done brat?" Jiraiya asked once Naruto seemed to have run out of steam.

"Yeah, pretty much, although I could probably go on if you want…"

"I think you either have a great imagination or rotten luck" Jiraiya interrupted him before he could get into another speech.

"Well I personally like to think I have both" Naruto replied easily, already back to his devil may care attitude.

"I don't suppose you have any way to prove any of your claims, do you?"

"Well apart from knowing a bunch of things I shouldn't…no I really don't have any proof, which is kind of the reason I haven't told anyone yet…that and I like it more when they don't know what to expect" Naruto happily answer back with his foxy grin.

"Ok brat, let's say I believe you, what are we supposed to do?"

"Well I'm not pretty sure what you are doing, except for spying in the hot springs… as for me, well I'm doing a few things: first I'm trying to figure out if the kid of suna is really a jinchuriki and if he is I think I'm gonna fight with him, maybe I will fight him even if he isn't one because he must be strong and it should be interesting although I need some kind of plan B to insure he doesn't kill me but I have a month to think it through…" At this point Jiraiya attempted to hit the blond in order to avoid another hour listening to his musings.

"Oh yeah, where was I? So first the sand team, then I need to train for the finals since I have to face Temari and his brother, because there is like almost no way Sasuke will win his fight, I'm also investigating certain things around town that are driving me crazy because I hate not knowing things and I'm pretty sure my curiosity is gonna kill me some day, and then I need to figure out a way to kill, or at least maim, the stupid voice that send me here…oh yeah I also need to find a way of not becoming a chunin, maybe if I quit during one of the fights or hide or something…" Naruto was again stopped from getting lost in his thoughts by the sannin.

"Wait a minute brat, what the hell do you mean by NOT becoming a chunin? why will you want to stay a genin?"

"I have already been a chunin, or something similar, and I refuse to do all those boring missions like guarding the gate, or the Hokage tower or something equally mind numbing, besides I like doing nothing all day except training, and if I get bored I could take a C-rank that would inevitably become something more dangerous since I'm cursed or something, so yes I rather stay a genin for a couple of years then try for jounin and skip that whole pesky chunin stage, and who knows being the demon brat and everything is more than likely I won't even be assigned a genin team…"

Jiraiya was seriously starting to develop a headache, not only this whole story seem like something you would find in one of his novels, but the brat not only looked like his father, he was also apparently as smart as him (or maybe more), more stubborn and as easily distracted as his mother, and dangerous in a whole new level. Which just seemed to reinforce his story since the last time he checked the kid was supposed to be a loudmouthed idiot desperate for attention and lacking most of the basic skills of a ninja, while the kid in front of him, although annoying in a whole different style was also smart, powerful, a very well trained ninja and didn't seemed to care one iota what anyone thought of him, except if he could find a way to exploit it in his favor.

It was starting to go dark, and Jiraiya could really use a good night sleep to think about this whole story, but there was something that he wanted to hear about first.

"Wait a minute brat, what did you said about Orochimaru?"

"Well I'd said plenty of things about the snake-teme, most of which shouldn't be repeated at loud, but if you're talking about his surprise apparition during the chunin exams, he seemed interested in the Uchiha brat and he even marked him, speaking of which, how far along are you in the investigation of those seals, because I would really like to help Anko get rid of hers or at least help to seal it better, since the snake-teme can still use it to incapacitate her"

"I've only done basic research in the seal, so for now reinforcing the protection seals is the best we could do"

"Ok, I'm up for it, just tell me when and where…uhm, there's something we need to do first, it looks interesting"

* * *

While Naruto was busy talking with his godfather, his clones were busy doing the normal things they did, which meant a few were busy starting and trading rumors, some were messing around with Konohamaru and his gang, some clones were doing research (spying) around the village, some were reading and experimenting with a few things, others were celebrating with his friends and some were engaged in Naruto's new hobby: spying on Kabuto and the sand team.

So far the ones with the sand team haven't heard much of anything except for Kankuro complaining, Temari nagging him, and Gaara… well Gaara and one of his clones were engaged in a staring contest, since Gaara seemed to have some improved senses, which raised the chances of him having his own demon but made it almost impossible to spy on him.

Either way the clones with the sand team hadn't heard anything interesting, but the ones with Kabuto were having a field day, apparently the guy was Orochimaru's spy which was easy enough to confirm since he reported to him almost immediately after the second exams ended, and would have been something important to inform the higher-ups if not for the fact that he was almost immediately caught as a spy while trying to kill Sasuke-teme, but he managed to escape without too much trouble, mostly because his opponents severely underestimate him.

Afterwards the clones had a hard time tracking Kabuto but they eventually found him chatting up with the sand team jounin, at this point the clones sensed the presence of another person although it was hard to pinpoint his identity without revealing themselves, however it was easy to see the other two were aware of this person and the clones were positive it wasn't one of the snake's allies, which meant he was probably going to get himself killed, so one of the clones decided to dissipate to inform the original and see what he would do.

The real Naruto, at the time, was speaking about the cursed seal with Jiraiya, and he figured that it was probably best to take some reinforcements, just in case he was forced to fight against Kabuto, who seemed to be scarily strong, and it was probably best to let someone else know about the invasion and avoid the whole 'you're just a genin' business, so he asked Jiraiya to come with him, well he basically just said lets go and went his way without explaining it, but he at least told the older man to come.

"Ok, brat what the hell is going on?" Jiraiya asked once the jounin of sand returned to wherever the hell he came from.

"Damn, I lost the glasses guy again…I swear the man is slippery like a snake, which makes plenty of sense since he is working for the snake-teme, but I doubt I could track the guy now since he knows they're searching for him so is more than likely he would leave the village, I wonder if I could put a price for his head, but then I couldn't fight the guy…decisions, decisions…"

"BRAT!" Jiraiya practically shouted once it become clear that Naruto either hadn't heard the question or at least didn't plan on answering.

"Oh yeah, I keep forgetting that not everyone has an army of clones to spy on the village and they're forced to rely on only a pair of eyes and ears, you know sometimes I'm grateful of having fuzzy in me, even if he is a grumpy so and so, at least he is easy to ignore most of the time"

"Naruto-kun, how did you knew I needed help?" Hayate asked knowing for previous experience that a direct question was the only way to get a real answer, and even then sometimes it was like pulling teeth.

"My clones told me" Naruto answer with a knowing grin and certain look in his eyes that a large group of people were starting to hate.

"Were you're clones following me?" Hayate tried again knowing that Naruto was in one of his moods.

"No, why would I do that? Although given everything that is been happening lately it might be safer and it would probably help with my research…"

"Brat, how did you're clones knew that Hayate needed help?" Jiraiya asked hoping to stall another rant that would worsened his already growing headache.

"Well they noticed that the other two knew someone was there and didn't seemed too pleased about it, so they figured whomever it was that was listening was in danger"

"…"

"…"

"Oh, you mean how I knew they were here, why didn't you just say so? well I already told you, Ibiki, Anko, the sand team, the chunin in the tower, Neji's team, Hinata's team, Shika's team (and pretty much everyone that listened to me) about the suspicious guy with the glasses so it made perfect sense to have a couple of clones following him"

Hayate, having more experience dealing with this particular blond brat, decided to drop this line of questioning and focus instead on the invasion which hopefully would force Naruto to act serious…at least for a little while.

"We need to inform the Hokage of the invasion, before the sand teams have a chance to escape"

"Why would they escape if they are fighting in the third round?" Naruto asked with a completely innocent façade only ruined by the look in his eyes that practically screamed 'I know something that you don't'.

"Well I don't know brat, let's see they know Hayate heard about the invasion and they saw you appeared out of thin air and take him out of harm's way, so they had probably figured we would go running to the Hokage, which is what we should do, and then the Hokage would probably try to captured them to find more about the plan, so it's a pretty safe bet they are leaving town as we speak" Jiraiya explained trying and failing to keep his composure.

"Who told them that Hayate escaped?" Naruto asked in a clearly outraged voice (completely faked but still clearly outraged) "I mean after me and my clones went through all the trouble of trapping him in a genjutsu and making him think that you were killed, somebody went and told them the truth that is so not fair…"

"What do you mean about a genjutsu Naruto-kun?"

"Well" Naruto answer back dropping his façade knowing he had already have his fun while Hayate recuperated and it was time to get serious "I figured that if the sand thought we knew about the invasion they would fled before we had a chance to interrogate them, furthermore even if they didn't escape they could claim we were framing them since we don't have any proof other than our word, which could possibly escalate into an international incident, either way the snake-teme would realize his plan was compromised and would probably attempt something different and we would lose any advantage we had, so the best way was for you to 'die' leaving them to believe we were still ignorant of what is gonna happen"

"This way we have the element of surprise on our side no matter what we choose to do, but we still need to be more careful of what could go wrong, especially if the information about the suna kid being a jinchuriki is truth" Naruto finished explaining, surprising slightly the other two, mainly because they hadn't thought all of that.

"So, you two have fun explaining all of it to the Hokage and be carefully of not being seen since we don't know if there are other spies…I'm gonna go sleep, this has been a long day" Naruto exclaim cheerfully hoping to catch them by surprise and escape while they were distracted.

* * *

'I still think is unfair that I have to be here, they were also there and I'm only a genin… sure I was planning on spying in the meeting either way but they didn't know that, and besides shouldn't they be worried about security and all of that…this is so NOT fair' Naruto had opted for ranting in his head once they finished explaining most of what happened before to the Hokage and it became clear that the others weren't interested in hearing his ranting, however he was forced to stop once the other ones that had been called made and appearance.

Naruto could honestly said he didn't get why most of the people present were even there (he being the most obvious example), on one hand you have the ANBU general, representatives of the council (luckily not Danzo), Ibiki, Jiraiya and Hayate, so far their presence was easy to understand, but then on the other hand you have Anko, Genma, Yugao, Kurenai, Gai, Asuma and Iruka which was all nice and good but made absolutely no sense whatsoever, and of course Kakashi was also supposed to be there but he had already disappeared with Sasuke to god knows where, so he was out.

While Naruto was trying to figure out what everyone was doing there, the rest of the people were busy making themselves comfortable in the office or making sure there was no way to be heard by any outsiders.

Once everyone was ready the Hokage explained why they were there and Hayate told his part of the story and then everyone turned to Naruto waiting to hear what he had to say, so he was forced to explain that he was following Kabuto because he was suspicious of the other genin since he knew stuff he shouldn't and dropped out of the exams when he was still in condition to continue fighting, luckily almost everybody present was somewhat familiar with him so they weren't completely surprised, the most surprised one was again the Hokage who just couldn't warp his head around Naruto's strength since even the head of the Nara clan, and the Hokage's old teammates, which were the representatives of the council, weren't particularly surprised by his display of strength since they had already heard the rumors or seen some of what he could do.

"So now that I'm done explaining my part I guess I should leave and let the rest for you to handle it" Naruto stated, hoping that the Hokage and most of the others would agree this wasn't something a genin should hear.

"Shut it brat, you said the Gaara kid from sand was possible a Jinchuriki, what makes you think so?" Unluckily for Naruto he had forgotten about Anko and she wasn't about to let Naruto run away when he was the one who started this whole thing, never mind that is was Orochimaru who was planning the invasion, Anko was sure that Naruto was responsible for this mess.

"Well, I can't be completely sure, I know for a fact that he and the rest of his team are the kids from the Kazekage, and the other two seemed to be scared to death of him, also he smells like sand and blood, and the control he has over his sand isn't natural so in the very least he has a bloodline, but there is some energy around him that makes fuzzy react and that coupled with the rumors about sand having a monster and the strange behavior of almost everyone around him, makes me think it is more than likely he is a Jinchuriki" Naruto explained in his report mode since he was pretty sure Anko wasn't letting him run away, unintentionally raising even more the opinion of the present about him and confusing the poor Hokage even more.

"If he is a Jinchuriki, can you take him?" Jiraiya asked trying to gauge what they had to work with.

"That depends on how his seal works and the amount of control he has over the demon's chakra, if his sand is a defense created by the demon, then is more than likely he has a large amount of demonic energy in his body and little to no control over most of it, which would mean that his seal is a particularly weak one, while the seal of fuzzy is not only much more complex but much more powerful since it requires a human sacrifice to powered it, at the same time while is truth that I can use fuzzy's chakra and control a small amount of it, even without his permission, there is no way I can control it while fighting fuzzy and another demon at the same time, and more than a couple of tails would be impossible to control even with fuzzy's help, which he isn't likely to give, and I might end up losing control and attacking everything and everyone, which is something I'm not willing to risk, so it's better to come up with a different plan and let fuzzy's chakra as a last resort" Naruto stated clearly, not willing to risk the safety of his village just for the sake of some of his secrets, he was his father's son after all.

"How about fighting without the Kyubbi's chakra?" Jiraiya asked before anyone could freak out, not that it was very needed since the only one to appeared completely shocked by the explanation was the Hokage whom Naruto had apparently tried to keep as out of the loop as possible.

"Again it depends on how strong and well trained he is, based on what I've seen so far I should be able to handle it, but I seriously doubt he has shown even half of his real power so is quite difficult to judge how would we fare in a fight, although I have some ideas for fighting him, but I've hadn't had any time to test them yet"

"You said Kabuto was at least as powerful as Kakashi?" Kurenai asked, since she knew Naruto was one of the best at collecting and discovering information.

"It's hard to tell since I've never seen either of them fight to their whole potential, but I can tell with some degree of certainty that Kabuto is at least high jounin in the abilities he has shown so far, furthermore he seemed to had some sort of bloodline similar to the Kyubbi's fast healing, or maybe even better, I can't tell for sure but either way he would be a tough opponent."

"So what should we do?" Gai asked unusually serious but knowing Naruto well enough to understand he wasn't one to exaggerate the situation.

Naruto shrugged, since he wasn't completely sure of the man power available and they still didn't know the scope of the invasion, so it was hard to tell the best course of action and he was still a genin so it wasn't something he was supposed to know either way, but he answered nonetheless.

"I think the best option would be to prepare as much as possible while alerting the least amount of people, that way we could, hopefully, plan an effective counterattack which should prevent most of the casualties"

Shikaku Nara was the first to voice his approval while adding a couple of his ideas and eventually a plan was put into shape and for some reason nobody objected to Naruto's presence forcing him to help with the planning, completely disregarding the fact that he was still a genin, not that anyone else seemed to care.

Once the meeting was almost coming to the end, Naruto decided to ask something that had been bothering for a while "I'm not trying to be rude or anything, since I had already complained about my own presence and offer to leave in various occasions, but I don't understand why the hell they are here in the first place?" Naruto asked motioning to Anko, Gai and the others.

"Hhm, I've actually been wondering the same Hokage-sama" Shikaku said after Naruto's interruption, he was curious about it but didn't wanted to voice it at loud and be rude to the others, however since the kid brought it up…almost everyone else in the room also nodded expressing their agreement with the other two.

The Hokage, whom had recovered from the shocked of hearing everything that Naruto did and thought and had decided to pretend he knew what was going on since nobody else seemed surprised about it and it wouldn't do to show weakness specially at a time like this, which coincidentally was the same reason the others in the room who weren't completely aware of the amount of power and information our favorite blond possessed decided to avoid voicing their questions at loud and risk appearing ignorant in front of everyone else, well that or they thought it was troublesome to bring attention to the fact.

Anyway the Hokage explained that they were here for different reasons: if they were going to pretend that Hayate was killed, then Genma was going to be the examiner for the third round and Yugao, as Hayate's girlfriend and an ANBU officer, needed to know what was going on to avoid serious problems. Anko was there because, as Orochimaru's student, she was one of the few who knew enough about the snake sannin to predict at least some of his movements; Iruka was there since he was the one that handled most of the missions assignments and other similar task so he needed to know what was going on to plan accordingly, and finally the Jounin were there because they had at least one student competing in the third round.

"As you have heard Orochimaru is probably going to attack during or close to the chunin exams, which puts your students in serious danger, it might be better if they quit their fights, even if it might precipitate an attack"

"Nah, I don't think there is any danger in letting them fight, at least during the first round, since most of the finalist are from leaf, and is doubtful that Temari and Kankuro would do anything that might draw unwanted attention and even if they do I'm Temari's opponent and since she is a wind specialist like myself I'm pretty safe from most of her attacks and Hinata is probably one of the worst match-ups possible for Kankuro, except maybe for Neji, since most of his techniques are useless at close contact and with her eyes there is no way he could trick her, so the only one in any real danger is the Uchiha because I seriously doubt that Gaara has even heard about holding back, much less that he would do so during a fight, but the others are pretty safe" Naruto answered back without thinking, only realizing too late that this would be the perfect opportunity for failing the exam without raising suspicions…but then maybe he wouldn't get to fight Gaara, so it was probably for the best.

"That is a good point, but I would rather that none of the genin get drawn in the fight for the moment, so it might be better to force them to retire or something similar" The Hokage suggested not even pretending to include Naruto in his orders, which Naruto thought was very mean since he was a genin and he had repeated it so much already that even he was starting to doubt it.

"Well that might be a little tricky, since I don't think there is much you can do to force Lee to retire from a fight specially against Neji, and Neji is more than likely to figure out there is something up and once he knows what it is he would not retire, especially if he figures I'm involved, and with those two involved as well as me, Tenten would surely demand to be involved as well" Naruto explained while Gai nodded all the time since he knew that Naruto was right.

"Shika would probably figure out something is up and once he gets interested it would probably be only a short amount of time before he knows all about it, and he is going to complain that is too troublesome while figuring a plan for helping as much as possible, since no matter what he says he cares about everyone around, and if Shika is fighting, Chouji would do it too, even without knowing why and if they're fighting Ino would fight too because no matter what she says she cares too much for her friends to leave them alone" This time it was Shikaku and Asuma who were nodding along with the explanation.

"And finally team eight, with Shino and Hinata it won't be long before they hear that something is up, and then they would immediately tell Kiba and none of them are going to be willing to retreat, Kiba and Shino probably would start planning some fights and Hinata would help them especially if she hears that Neji is involved, so in the end they are all going to get involved either way" Kurenai also nodded to this signaling her agreement and causing the Hokage to develop a headache.

"What about your team, won't they get involved?" the Hokage asked catching Naruto by surprise since he had honestly forgotten he was even in a team, much least that he was supposed to know what they were doing, which should be easy since he kept tabs on almost everybody, except, curiously enough, his own team for which Naruto had developed a huge amount of distaste and he tended to pretend they didn't existed, so in complete honestly Naruto had no clue of what they were likely to do.

"Umm, well about them I don't have a clue of what they would do and I'm not very sure of where they are right now… so I don't think there is a way of knowing for sure" Naruto replied honestly figuring it wasn't his fault that his team sucked, and making it plainly clear to everybody present how team 7 worked.

"Didn't Kakashi tell you he was leaving and appointed someone for your training?" The Hokage asked surprised since as far as he knew Kakashi was training Naruto for the finals.

"Well I haven't really seen Kakashi in a few weeks (more like months but there was no way he was telling them that he usually send clones to the team meetings) since he was training the Uchiha or something, and I was busy training with Anko-neechan and the others so I honestly don't know where he is"

"So Anko was training you?" Shikaku asked, he had heard rumors about it but wasn't sure if he believed that Anko of all people was training a genin.

"Yes I was" Anko answered before anyone else had a chance "since he is being hunted by a group of A-ranked missing ninjas I figured he needed all the training he could get"

"So the assassins are really after him?" Koharu asked surprised since even if she had heard the rumors she had dismissed them as unimportant since why would a group as the assassins chase after a small genin.

"Yes, they are" Naruto answered this time since it gave him the perfect opportunity to complain some more and to mess with a few people which was all good in his book "That man, Tai, said I looked like someone he hated, so he was going to make sure that I was dead because he didn't want any reminders of him, which is seriously unfair since I didn't do anything to him and it isn't my fault that I looked like someone he knew, and I still think the man has something seriously wrong with his head"

"Well either way" Jiraiya interrupted before Naruto could get into one of his speeches "The brat needs some training and, since Kakashi took the Uchiha, I guess it's only fair that we offer him some extra training, actually we could prepare all the rookie teams for the fight and since they are supposed to be training for the third exam it won't be suspicious"

Everyone quickly agreed and it was decided most of the jounin would help with the genin training as long as possible, which would give the others time to prepare for the invasion and finally the meeting was adjourned and Jiraiya decided he would sleep in Naruto's apartment since he would be helping him with some extra training.

"You know brat" Jiraiya said once they arrived to the apartment "that plan of yours for failing the exams…well I'm pretty sure that right now there is a bigger chance of you becoming a Jounin that of you staying a genin"

Naruto, who had been getting ready for a good night sleep, completely froze at hearing that since he had utterly forgot about his part in the exams until that moment and this time he was pretty sure the laughter he heard wasn't only in his head.


	14. Interlude Open your eyes

**A change in scenery**

**Intermezzo – Open your eyes**

Anko have had a very strange time during the last few months, a good strange kind of time but strange nonetheless.

When news of the return of her old master and his supposed plan for an invasion had reach her, she was expecting to be put under surveillance or something similar, after all the council had made perfectly clear how much (or how little) they trusted her.

However she hadn't taken into account the blond brat that had barged into her life and refused to leave (not that she really wanted him to leave). The first time she met him, she had been torn between murdering him in a very painful way, taking him to the hospital because she was sure that there was something wrong with his head or letting her curiosity get the best of her, in the end the offer of dango convinced her to give the brat a chance thinking she could always get rid of him later, that was before she figured out how stubborn the brat could be.

Naruto was one of the strangest persons she had ever met, and having been a student to the snake-sannin that was saying something.

Having never met the blond previously she had nothing to base her opinion but the rumors she had heard, obviously she didn't think he was the Kyuubi reborn or any other of the stupid theories she had heard, but she did though he was supposed to be a loudmouthed idiot, with little common sense and desperate for any kind of attention.

Which was half-truth, he was a loudmouthed brat and as far as she could tell he didn't have much common sense (or at least he didn't use it too often), but contrary to popular belief he didn't care much for other people attention, he was close to a genius and he was a ninja prodigy.

She knew that, given her own experiences, she shouldn't put much stock into what people said but since meeting Naruto she had dropped even lower her opinion of the general public, here was a kid that could practically absorb knowledge like a sponge, who learnt new jutsu quicker than she could taught them, who never complaint (at least not seriously), never became arrogant and who always worked hard and never give up, and no one (besides Gai) had bother to give him the time of the day because they had this strange conviction that he was supposed to be a demon reborn.

After Naruto had decided to adopt her as his big sister (never mind her own opinion), she was again forced to review her opinions on certain things, first she had become part of this strange group of people who Naruto had collected as friends, teachers or simply family in various degrees, the fact that this group included everything from academy students to elite jounin didn't really surprised her as much as the fact that none of them seem to care much for her supposed reputation, of course given that it was Naruto who had united them that shouldn't have been as much as a shock as it was.

However she had also come to lose some of the respect she held for certain people, after hearing about Naruto's childhood, seeing him training and learning exactly who his mother was, she couldn't see the Hokage the same way she always did, sure the man was a genius shinobi and in many ways a great leader, but he had made so many mistakes regarding her little brother that she could no longer think of him in the same way she used to do but she still respected the man and knew that he only did what he thought best.

The same could not be said about Kakashi, she had never thought much of him as a man (given his many disturbing habits particularly his constant reading of that perverted book in public) but she had respected him as a ninja and as a warrior, that all changed when she saw his treatment of his so called team and especially of her little brother. At first she hadn't given it much of thought about why was Naruto training with her instead of with his own team, but after learning he was also training with Gai (and on his own) she decided to investigate what was going on.

After learning who was Naruto's Jounin instructor she had been even more confused, after all, why did he needed her to teach him jutsu when his sensei was known to know over a 1000 jutsu? So she did some spying and realized some things: the first was that Naruto always send a shadow clone (or a few) to team meetings and as far as she could tell no one seemed to notice it, in the beginning she wasn't sure of what to think since this was obviously a serious breach of conduct, however after paying attention to how the team interacted she realized why the blond did this in the first place, and she couldn't honestly say she wouldn't have done the same in the situation, in the end who would want to spent his days doing chores, being yelled, ignored and insulted when you could be training (or doing anything else for that matter). So, no she didn't blamed the brat for doing what he did, she blamed Kakashi for making it a necessity and the more she saw the more her respect for the man dropped, however there wasn't much she could do (except letting all of Naruto's other teachers know what was going on) so she just focused her attention on her little brother and dismissed Kakashi as unimportant.

By the time the chunin exams came rolling around she had learnt more secrets of the village that what she even knew existed in the first place, and she, along with almost everybody else that was close to Naruto, was willing to do everything in her power to help him become a chunin, there were many reasons for this, the fact that he was being pursuit by a bunch of dangerous missing-nin, that his team sucked, that he was way above genin level, that the village could use him as a chunin or even as a Jounin, that they could get away with teaching him stuff more easily (as well as telling him stuff they shouldn't) if he had a higher rank and some other technicalities that would made their lives easier.

Either way she wasn't particularly surprised when he passed the first test without any problem, she wasn't even that surprised when she noticed he was half sleep and she was willing to bet he had been sleep for the better part of the test, she was completely unsurprised when she saw how exited he was about her test and she even remain unimpressed when Ibiki told her about the warnings he had written in his test instead of answering it, and when she heard about Orochimaru along with being angry with the snake bastard she also had this nagging suspicion that Naruto had found a way of becoming involved with the man, so she wasn't particularly shocked when she found her favorite blond brat fighting with the snake-teme.

She had been scared when the snake-teme use her cursed seal to incapacitate her, especially since she knew that Naruto would do anything to protect her (including getting himself killed), she had been relieved when Gai's brats decided to come and help and was extremely grateful when Naruto had managed to make the seal stop whatever the hell it was doing, and she was kind of gland when the brat told her he already had the scrolls and would go to the tower soon (she noticed the other brats seemed surprised but she decided to ignore it) and she was very glad when he arrived at the tower a few hours later without a scratch on.

After that the rest of the second exams had been conventional, if you ignored Naruto's suspicions about the sand team and his increasing concern about that Kabuto guy, anyway the second test and the preliminaries weren't particularly astounding and she had been happily celebrating and therefor completely shocked when she was asked by an ANBU to report to the Hokage's office immediately.

She was even more astonished when she noticed everyone else in the Hokage's office, particularly certain blond brat who looked like he was trying to come up with an excuse to leave the room, she wasn't startled when she heard how Naruto had rescued Hayate, however she was stunned when she heard about the coming invasion by her old master, and she was only saved of drowning in her depressing and murderous thoughts by certain blonde brat trying to escape from the room, something she wasn't willing to permit, partially since he was the one who dropped all this in their heads and in part because this was the perfect opportunity to force Naruto to share some of his secrets.

So she forced him to share most of which he knew and suspected (never mind that he had already told her all about it) and wasn't in the least surprised when he ended up planning must of their response to the possible invasion.

After that meeting she had been incredibly busy since she was one of the few people in the village who knew exactly what was going on, and everyone expected her to lead a good amount of Konoha's forces during the invasion, which really surprised her since she hadn't thought they would trust her that much, additionally she was also helping to train the genin (except Sakura and the Uchiha brat but she didn't really care about them too much), training herself and helping with tactical meetings since she was one of the very few left that could at least try to guess what the snake-teme was most likely to do with any degree of certainty.

Also about half way through the month, Naruto and Jiraiya had come to tell her that they thought they could reseal her cursed hicky and even if they couldn't completely remove it (yet), they could at least make it so that the snake-teme couldn't use it to incapacitate her, she had readily agreed and they performed a complex sealing process that, left her unconscious for a couple of days and would, hopefully, render the technique of the snake-teme useless.

Now the month was up, the finals were at long last starting and, even with everything else that was going on, she couldn't help but laugh at the effect that Naruto's look was having on the general public and especially on the female part of the audience.

* * *

Jiraiya was having a confusing month, an informative, exiting and busy month but more confusing than anything else.

It all started when he had come to Konoha to deliver some sensitive information, check how his godson was doing and do a little 'research'. He had been busy with his work (spying on the hot springs) when he suddenly found himself holding a tearful blond who kept saying how much he missed him along with everyone else, and honestly just the fact that this was his godson kept him from beating the blond into a bloody pulp.

Afterwards the blond tried to play innocent, it wasn't until later that Jiraiya realized that almost anyone else would have been fooled by the stupid act, but Jiraiya managed to force the information out of him, or more like told him he didn't have any other choice and was lucky enough to catch the brat in a bad moment and was, therefor, forced to endure hours of hearing the blond rant and complain while trying to process one of the more incredible stories he had heard.

At first he hadn't known what to think, he was inclined to assume the blond brat had finally snapped, however he seemed to know many things he shouldn't and a few Jiraiya didn't even knew so he decided to give him the benefit of the doubt, the problem was that the more he heard and saw the harder it was to remind himself the story couldn't be real. In the end, after the meeting with the Hokage and hearing the blond brat who was supposed to be the dead last of his class and a social outcast, handling the whole situation like an experienced jounin and more impressive as an experienced commander and tactician, where it was made plainly obvious that the brat was used to planning in advance and having his orders followed, and where it was also glaringly obvious he considered himself at least an equal to everyone in the room, he just couldn't convince himself that the story wasn't true, so he had given up and accepted that this was his godson from a different world. Sometimes reality is stranger than fiction.

That night (after teasing the brat about his so called plan of staying a genin) he had gone to bed but not to sleep, his brain was far too busy trying to come to grips with everything he had heard.

First it was the obvious fact that there was more to the Kyuubi attack than anyone realize, after all his godson was right: one time could be attributed to bad luck, but twice…well that was something he needed to investigate, however his main concern wasn't necessarily the attack but the consequences of said attack.

From Naruto's remarks he realized that the Konoha of the other world was far more powerful than their Konoha, this could be easily explained in some cases but not so much in others.

The other Konoha had the 'yellow flash' as their leader, not that Sarutobi-sensei wasn't a good leader, but he was tired and he simply didn't have the energy he once did, while Minato was young, powerful and full of energy, so it was easy to understand why the other Konoha seemed to have a stronger attitude, the other Konoha still had the Uchiha clan, which was surprising and confusing, he had been sure that Itachi had lost it and nothing anyone did could change that, but apparently (according to his godson) Itachi was, in fact, one of the stronger Jounin of the village and more importantly one of the more loyal.

Kakashi, Tsunade and even himself, were fairly easy to understand, apparently the loss of the yondaime affected them more than they thought, Naruto had said as much during his rant, seemingly they simply were weaker than their counterparts, but there other things that he simply didn't get.

According to Naruto most of the people his age were weaker than he remembered them, and also with worst personalities but that wasn't so important, even the Uchiha brat who was supposed to be the strongest of his class was supposed to already be a chunin from what Naruto said, so what had changed?

However what worried him more was Naruto, not necessarily this Naruto since he seemed to be doing well, but the other one, he had always loved his godson but after seeing his father sacrifice himself he just wasn't up to dealing with raising him, and he was more interested in leaving the village as fast as possible, he had though (at the time) that Sarutobi or even Kakashi would deal with the baby until he felt he could do it, but apparently he wasn't the only one feeling overwhelmed and in the end Naruto was left alone when he needed them the more.

During the years after that Jiraiya had heard all the rumors and had decided it was for the best that Naruto didn't found out the truth about his parents, since he didn't seemed like the best person to deal with that kind of secrets and had finally decided to wait until the kid made it to chunin before getting directly involved, that had, apparently, been a mistake.

The present Naruto didn't even knew everything from his old life, but he knew enough to paint a clear picture of how it had been, however having years extra of experience made it almost impossible for him to feel the way the other Naruto did, even if he could relate.

As far as Naruto could explain the original Naruto was almost consumed by loneliness, to the point where he decided to create a mask to protect himself from a village where he was normally either ignored or abused, that in itself was bad enough and Jiraiya was kind of glad that due to this strange set of circumstances Naruto wouldn't be forced to deal with many of the emotional scars, however as much as this affected him on a personal level it was nothing to how he felt dealing with the ninja side of things.

The original Naruto had been, at twelve, the dead last of his class and was barely capable of doing the replacement and Henge techniques, and even that much was more due to luck than to any real training, the original Naruto didn't had any sort of taijutsu style and genjutsu was something he hadn't even heard about.

The other Naruto, at twelve, was an elite Jounin included in the bingo books of cloud, Iwa and Oto, he was already considered a master of genjutsu, had his own style of taijutsu and had enough power to defeat the Kyuubi no kitsune, all in all it was difficult not to question himself on what made the difference in the first place.

And of course there was the progress of the present Naruto since he had arrived at this dimension, which was a little over 6 months, he had trained to the point where he could use his taijutsu style effectively, had developed his chakra control enough to use a few genjutsu which given his level of reserves was nothing short of impressive and had even managed to defeat a couple of A-rank enemies and had even his own entry in a bingo book.

Of course one could attribute much of the differences to having the Kyuubi sealed in him, but not in the way most people would assume and definitely not in its entirety, sure the Kyuubi had shot Naruto's control to hell, making learning even the more simple Jutsu a hard endeavor, and had cost the kid his parents (or at least his dad), which in itself brought another set of complications, but again that was just a small part of the problem.

Basically all of the problems that Kyuubi brought could be easily fixed with knowledge, training and time, something that the new Naruto had already proved, and as far as Minato went, sure the man had probably done many things that helped Naruto's training, but even Naruto admitted that he wasn't one of his main instructors and he basically focused on the basics or the clan techniques and let the main part of Naruto's training in the hands of his other teachers most of which were also available in this dimension, so no, he didn't thought that they could put the blame solely on the Kyuubi.

Their reactions to the Kyuubi, that was another matter entirely, however even those only accounted for so much, after all most of the Jounin and even a few of the chuunin didn't believe that Naruto was the Kyuubi reborn or any other stupid story like that, so why didn't anyone did anything?

After expending hours trying to warp his head around everything that Naruto told him in the end he succumbed to a troubled sleep without anything resembling an answer.

However the rest of the month was anything but relaxing, not only was he busy trying to prepare the city and the shinobi forces for an attack without attracting much attention, but he was also forced to train a bunch of brats (who cares if he technically offered to do it) than in itself was bad enough and let little time to anything else (including his research) but there was also a certain blond brat who finally found someone to whom he could ask his questions without being suspicious and who simply didn't take NO for an answer.

What made everything even worse was that the brat had an instinct for trouble and seemed to enjoy causing as much havoc as possible. Point in fact, take the Namikaze name, Naruto kind of relented on taking his real last name until he made it to chuunin (which wouldn't take long if the way everyone treated the blond was anything to go by), although he made a point to mention how useless it was to try to keep the secret since Tai already knew the truth and at this point he had probably already told it to everyone who was interested, curious or simply passing by at the right moment.

Of course even after agreeing to keep his current last name and apartment Naruto was still adamant that he should be allowed to used his clan archives and techniques, never mind that Jiraiya was almost sure that Minato hadn't allowed it, Naruto insisted that it was his right as the last Namikaze, honestly Jiraiya though it had more to do with the fact that Naruto was curious about what was inside than anything else, either way it took him weeks, to convinced the brat to wait until after the invasion to go in there and even then Naruto only agreed after Jiraiya let him sign the toad contract.

And now after all that Naruto still decided to show up at the exams like a small copy of his father, simply because he liked how he looked and wanted to see how everyone reacted.

* * *

Hatake Kakashi was having a very difficult year.

It all started when he was assigned a genin team, not a big deal he was assigned a team every time and he always failed them, there was not any reason why this time it should be different, except that it was different, for starters he had the last loyal Uchiha in his team, and to make matters worse he also had certain blond Jinchuriki and a girl named Sakura who was just very lucky, because he couldn't fail that team, he knew it, the Hokage knew it and the council knew it, however his new 'team' didn't so he decided to have a little fun with them, of course that was before he actually met them.

When he first met them, he was tempted to ask the Hokage what had he ever done that it was so bad because that wasn't a new team, they were ghost of his old team and that scared crap out of him, since he was honest enough to admit (even if only to himself) that he hadn't dealt with the ghosts of his past and now he didn't have much of a choice about it.

However he had forced himself to deal with them but beyond the strictly necessary he didn't pay much attention to Sakura or Naruto, each for different reasons.

Sakura at the beginning reminded him of Rin, she was very smart and had excellent chakra control, which meant that she could easily have a future as a medic-nin. However that only lasted for a couple of weeks before he realized that the pink haired girl was much more interested in pursuing her black haired teammate than to actually do anything for herself, however he simply decided to give her time and to hope that she grew out of it and in the mid-time he was only focusing on improving her control even more.

Naruto was another matter entirely at first he had reminded him of Obito so much it almost hurt to look at him, and even then he couldn't avoid thinking of his sensei whenever he saw him, thus he practically ignored Naruto in order to avoid additional pain, which wasn't really easy since the blond was always demanding extra training which Kakashi simply didn't believe he was ready to get, at least according to the general opinion and his academy teachers, so he simply gave him the same training that Sakura and spent the rest of the time pretending he didn't have a blond student.

But even then the wave mission came along and he was forced to confront the fact that Naruto was a lot more powerful than he thought and that no matter how many times Naruto had requested his help, he didn't actually believed the man would offer any, and no matter how much he had tried to ignore the kid, he couldn't help feeling hurt that the son of his sensei didn't trusted him or even like him much for that matter.

He was really impressed with how advanced Naruto's training was and he couldn't help that feel a little jealous of whoever was helping him, so he vowed to spend more time with the blond and hopefully earn his trust, but then the bridge attack happened and if that wasn't bad enough Tai showed up out of nowhere and it probably took him only a couple of seconds to figure Naruto's true identity and having heard of the man he knew that he would waste no time at all in sharing the information with anyone that cross his path.

All in all is completely understandable that he was more than a little relieved to finally be back to Konoha and, once he was sure that all of his students were safely back, he wasted no time to inform the Hokage of what went on in the mission, even so, he was only finishing his story when Anko arrived demanding to know what was being done to keep Naruto safe and berating him for going along with the mission once he realized how dangerous it was, she was still in the middle of her rant when Gai showed up demanding to know why a team of genin was forced in an A rank mission and why they weren't doing anything to protect Naruto, to be honest at this point he was completely shocked since he didn't even knew that Gai and Anko had met Naruto much less that they were that concerned for him or how in the hell did they found out so quickly what had happened, in the end it took him and the Hokage a couple of hours to calm them down and even then it was only after they agreed to let Naruto move to a new apartment close to Anko where he could be easily protected.

When Naruto arrived he didn't appeared to be surprised by the presence of the other ninjas and seemed quite happy to move near Anko, in fact he seemed more than confortable in her presence which confounded and upset Kakashi if he was being honest.

After the meeting his team was given a couple of weeks to rest, and he spend most of that time thinking of what he should do next, his original plan was to immediately increase his team training in case they were forced in to another situation like the wave mission, however the more he thought about it the more he dislike that plan, on one hand Sakura wasn't really ready for a more serious training and on the other hand he wasn't sure Naruto was either, sure the boy had proven that he was in very good condition and that he wasn't the complete idiot everyone though he was, but then again he was also keeping dangerous secrets and Kakashi was honestly concerned about his attitude and his ego, which he was sure was only going to grow bigger if he started to give the blond special training.

In the end he decided to focus on helping Sasuke develop his sharingan and having the other two working on their control, hopefully by the time Sasuke was done, he would be at the same level that Naruto which should help to keep him in check (Naruto not Sasuke) and in turn would push Sakura to train harder. After making up his mind he immediately put it into practice and decided to start training Sasuke immediately.

Originally he thought his plan was working pretty well, but a couple of months later he was seriously starting to wonder if he was missing something. First of all he couldn't shake the constant feeling that everyone knew something he didn't and that wherever he went there was always someone talking behind his back, which was making him more than a little paranoid, then there was the way he was being treated by the other jounin instructors and even some of his old friends, even Gai had stop challenging to his stupid contests and instead was trying to avoid him whenever possible, and to top it all there was Naruto reaction to their current training, if he thought things where bad before there was nothing compared to the way their new relationship was, to be honest Naruto was treating him how he treated Naruto in the beginning keeping their interactions to the minimum possible and ignoring him the rest of the time.

Either way by the time the chuunin exams came around he was half tempted to simply go back to his original plan and start training all of his team, at least then Naruto would be forced to interact with him, in the end he decided to put all of his team in the chuunin exam which would hopefully be enough to give them the push they needed and if that didn't work he could always decide what to do later on.

The chuunin exams where surprising in themselves, sure he was impressed with how fast his team completed the second test and more than happy with Sasuke's victory despite having received the forbidden seal from Orochimaru, he was also a little ashamed of Sakura's fight since she didn't seemed to be able to do much of anything and a little concerned by how happy Naruto seemed to watch one of his teammates defeated, but what really concerned him was Naruto's fight, sure he was expecting a victory for Naruto, given what he had seen of his strength, however he wasn't expecting such and easy win and even less the reaction, or more precisely the lack of reaction from almost everyone else watching the fight including the genin from the other teams, in fact as far as he could tell they were pretty much expecting it and wasn't that concerning on its own?

In the end he decided to ask Ebisu to help with Naruto's training for the third part, and have a long chat with the boy before leaving him with Ebisu, of course all of his plans where based on Naruto actually asking for help which didn't happen and it only caused more concerned, however he needed to start Sasuke's training if the boy was going to have any chance against that Gaara kid so he left while vowing to himself that he would talk with Naruto as soon as possible.

By the time the exams rolled around he was confident that Sasuke was ready to face that Gaara kid and even if they were running a little late he was sure they would bend the rules a little for the last Uchiha so he wasn't all that worried.


End file.
